2024
鈥淚rish Universities can and must be much better at engaging with business鈥
鈥淚rish Universities can and must be much better at engaging with business鈥 states Sean O鈥橠riscoll, one of Ireland鈥檚 business leaders, and chair of the Governing Authority of University College Cork (UCC).
His remarks came yesterday evening at a UCC Business Engagement event, attended by over 200 attendees from across Ireland鈥檚 business sector.
鈥淔rom experience, unlike US universities, Irish universities do not reach out enough to business. In Ireland, businesses have to reach into universities and when they do, they find it very difficult, time consuming and frustrating to navigate their way through overly complex organisations. It should not be so鈥 stated Sean O鈥橠riscoll, who is also Chairman of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and former Chief Executive of Glen Dimplex.
UCC leads Ireland in industry engagement, securing over 鈧120 million in research funding in 2023, and has the highest graduate employability rate of Irish universities. A new , which will act as a single point of contact for SME鈥檚 and multinationals looking to engage 草榴社区, was launched on the night.
The business engagement event highlighted the diverse ways UCC supports industry, from research partnerships to talent and skills development to innovation and technologies. Leading industry partners, including ESB, Carbery Group, J&J MedTech, KPMG, Qualcomm, and Pfizer, shared insights into their successful collaborations 草榴社区, demonstrating how these partnerships are driving advancements across multiple sectors.
鈥淲e have a strong focus on industry engagement and innovation at UCC that has created a culture where industry collaboration thrives. Industry engagement is about more than economic development, it is about building stronger, more resilient communities鈥 stated Professor John O鈥橦alloran, President of UCC.
鈥淯CC is an enterprise of significant scale, with an annual Budget of approximately 鈧600 million, 25,000 students and 3,200 staff. If it were a town it would be the 6th largest in Ireland. As a large employer, UCC has a huge national and regional economic impact, proving conclusively that education, research and innovation is not a cost, it is an investment鈥 stated Sean O鈥橠riscoll.