CarlowITin‘ EU’ businessscheme

Institute of Technology Carlow is to be a central partner in a new €2.9 million EU-funded scheme to support small businesses in Ireland and Wales.

More than 120 Irish- and Welsh businesses are set to benefit from the project over the next three years

The BUCANIER (Building Clusters and Networks in Innovation, Enterprise and Research) project will see the Institute join forces with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), Wexford County Council, Swansea University and Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire County Councils in Wales.

Together they will help to boost trade and provide specialist support to help small businesses design and develop new products and services.

The project will work in key growth sectors of the Welsh and Irish economies, including food and drink, life sciences and renewable energy.

The project will also see Institute of Technology Carlow and its partners offer innovation master-classes, business mentoring and create new networks between Wales and Ireland.

These are aimed at helping businesses in the same sectors share knowledge, increase cross-border trade and create new jobs.

BUCANIER is part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund as part of the Ireland-Wales cooperation programme, which is helping to strengthen economic links and collaboration between the two countries.

Speaking at the meeting of partners in Institute of Technology Carlow this week, Brian Ogilvie, Head of Research and Commercialisation Support said:

‘ This funding will be a critical factor in helping to create cross-border clusters and networks that will allow the transfer of knowledge between Higher Education Institutes and SMEs to increase cross-border trade, thereby contributing to the wealth and well-being of the cross-border region’.

Carlow IT is also involved in the South East Action Plan for Jobs which recently set up a Greenway Project Office in New Ross which will develop and implement a regional strategy designed to take advantage of opportunities from recreational tourism. An integrated regional strategy, aligning to national tourism initiatives.

At a meeting of the implentation committee at Carlow IT, the South East APJ’s Industry Champion for Tourism, Liam Griffin, stated that the Greenway project for the South East was the most exciting tourism project he’d ever seen in the region.