Trinity College plans €1bn tech & enterprise campus
A startup incubator in Dublin run by Boston-based Cambridge Innovation Centre (CIC) is set to be included in a €1bn technology and enterprise campus being planned by Trinity College. The campus aims to play a pivotal role in building Ireland’s global presence in the technology sector.
Chief innovation and enterprise officer at TCD Diarmuid O’Brien said that first phase of the new campus is likely to cost between €200 million and €250 million to develop. Plans for the new campus includes a 100,000 sq m (1.1 million sq ft) tech epicentre beside giants such as Facebook, Google and Airbnb.
Plans for the technology and enterprise campus were previously floated by TCD but it was reported last week that the scale of the proposed project has now significantly expanded. A major element – a large incubator space for commercial startups – will be operated for TCD by Boston-based Cambridge Innovation Centre (CIC).
CIC’s entire innovation ecosystem houses more than 1,000 companies in 50,000 sq m of space. Startups that have used or are using the CIC complex have raised over $2.5 billion (€2.3 billion) in venture capital since 1999.
“What we really want is for the campus to stimulate the development of an innovation district for Dublin and for Ireland,” said Mr O’Brien. “What we would see is, for the first time, Ireland having a real critical mass of world-class research, scaling and startup companies, and large-scale multinationals all co-locating within a square mile of each other.”
It will be developed using a public-private partnership. TCD has already spoken to multinationals, venture capital outfits and entrepreneurs to generate support for the plan.
