A new £58 million Global Innovation Institute (GII) is on course to open in Belfast by 2025, Queen’s University has revealed.
The Institute is an expansion of Queen’s University’s Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) and will house more than 550 experts at its Titanic Quarter site.
The announcement was made during the Secure Connected Intelligence Summit 2022 at ECIT.
Professor Maire O’Neill is the Director of ECIT at Queen’s. She comments: “Over the last 10 years, Queen’s University has helped to put Northern Ireland on the map for digital innovation. Over the next decade, we have ambitious plans as we begin our evolution to a Global Innovation Institute as part of the Belfast Region City Deal. This is a huge opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland and all of our industry partners.”
Ms. O’Neill added: “This team of researchers will build on our core expertise across cyber security, advanced wireless technologies, data science/analytics. In a multi-disciplinary environment, our skilled workforce will include experts from many sectors who will be developing research in areas such as health data, agri-food and Fintech.”
The £58 million investment will see an expansion of the existing ECIT building and will have more than 550 researchers based at the Institute. There will be a mix of researchers who are already based at ECIT, as well as new posts and others who will be co-locating from a wide range of companies and external partners.
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Addressing the Summit, Finance Minister, Conor Murphy said: “This new £58 million Global Innovation Institute is a significant boost to the local economy. The cutting edge innovation centre will create jobs and enhance our reputation as a centre of excellence. This project demonstrates how collaboration between Government, local councils, universities and industry can be transformative and bring greater prosperity and opportunities.”
Economy Minister Gordon Lyons added: “We have an incredibly rich heritage of innovation, and this innovation, including the multidisciplinary research which is strongly demonstrated here at ECIT, is key to Northern Ireland’s prosperity as it is a fundamental driver of productivity and competitiveness.The Global Innovation Institute will build on the capability that has been developed in ECIT through nearly £10m of funding from Invest Northern Ireland which has, in turn, leveraged a further £68.5m in funding since 2010. It will transform Northern Ireland’s digital economy by substantially increasing both the volume and range of digital innovation taking place in key growth sectors within the region.”
The hybrid event is ECIT’s 11th Annual Summit and is running from 17 to 19 May 2022.
Key speakers at the event include:
Koen Gijsbers, Former General Manager of the NATO Communications and Information Agency, and Non-Executive Director of Belfast-based IoT security specialist ANGOKA
Boakye Dankwa – Cyber Security Specialist at Rolls-Royce
Dr Howard Benn, VP Communications Research at Samsung Electronics R&D Institute
Professor Cathie Sudlow, Director of British Heart Foundation Data Science Centre
Some of the key companies in attendance are Rolls Royce, Samsung, Nokia, British Heart Foundation, ANGOKA, Sensata, Ampliphae.
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Former General Manager of the NATO Communications and Information Agency, and now a Non-Executive Director of Belfast-based IoT security specialist ANGOKA, Koen Gijsbers says he is delighted to address this year’s Secure Connected Intelligence Summit in Northern Ireland.
He comments: “Belfast is fast growing its reputation as a centre of excellence in the field of cyber security and I look forward to sharing my experiences in the international sphere in communications, cyber security and defence and to hearing from colleagues in industry and commerce.
Under the Belfast Region City Deal, the UK and Northern Irish governments are funding the Deal with £170m going to Queen’s University to lead three innovation centres.
Source: Written from press release
