THRIVING Region in focus
DIGITAL DISTRICT
THIRD LEVEL LINKS
Excellent third-level colleges in the region offer a steady stream of high quality graduates: The Institute of Technology Carlow and Waterford Institute of Technology, as well as LIT Clonmel Campus and LIT Thurles Campus, two schools of Limerick Institute of Technology. These educational bodies are highly engaged with industry, offering focused course content. “IT Carlow and Waterford IT have played a significant role in showcasing the capabilities of the region to international talent when they come here. For example, Unum’s engagement with IT Carlow has been a pivotal force in the growth of the Unum Carlow site.” Supporting this educational platform are the research centres, three of which are based in WIT’s campus. The Telecommunications IDA Ireland Regional Business Development Software and Systems Group (TSSG) areas include mobile platforms Manager for the South East, Brendan McDonald and services, data analytics and social computing, adaptive networks and services and reveals how a strong talent pipeline combined with augmented and virtual reality. “TSSG is a huge government, industry and educational supports has influencer in the mobile app world and in telecommunications software, so that’s driving led to a thriving technology cluster. a lot of innovation in the region as well.” The South Eastern Applied Materials Research Centre (SEAM) provides innovative materials engineering solutions for sectors such as biomedical devices, pharmaceuticals, Brendan McDonald microelectronics and precision engineering. The Pharmaceutical and Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC) supports research and development activities within the H E S O U T H E A S T R EG I O N O F pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. “When IRELAND HAS EMERGED AS A companies are looking to grow, not only their graduate DY N A M I C T EC H N O LO GY C LU S T E R , pool, but also the learning piece, the interaction with the Institutes of Technology is very important.” AT T R A CT I N G I N N O VAT I V E
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C O M PA N I ES F R O M A C R O S S A
LONG-TERM RETENTION
VA R I E T Y O F S ECTO R S I N C LU D I N G
The South East region offers a greater work-life balance which not only attracts high calibre talent, but retains L I F E S C I E N C ES A N D M E D I C A L them, according to McDonald. “If you want to give people T EC H N O LO G I ES , F I N T EC H A N D the gift of time, we would very much encourage them to come to the South East region. You’ve got much CY B E R S EC U R I T Y, T E L EC O M S shorter commute times and lower costs of living, as E N G I N E E R I N G A N D R ES E A R C H , well as ease of access to mountains, the sea, greenways A N D C U S TO M E R S E R V I C E . and blueways. You’ll have employees who are going to be more engaged and happier from the point of view of retention. In urban locations of scale, the quality of life may be more challenging.” According to IDA Ireland Regional Business Development Manager for the South East, Brendan McDonald, this regional cluster covers PROPERTY POSSIBILITIES all aspects of software development as well as technical support The region offers the ability to grow and scale with a range of for the various different industries as companies look to solve the property solutions, from IDA Ireland-owned sites to modern office problems of other sectors. “There are a lot of tech companies doing campuses and co-working spaces. Construction was completed globally significant functions here.” on IDA’s second Advanced Building Solution (ABS) in Waterford The South East region has much to offer both investors and in July 2019, the only location in the country to have a second employees: it consists of five counties, Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, ABS. Co-working spaces offer a convenient starting point and Kilkenny and South Tipperary, has a population of over 510,000 have proved popular with international organisations in the growth and a workforce of 220,000. The area produces over 5,000 phase. When establishing their software development and CAD graduates a year and is home to over 70 multinationals, and is support centre in Ireland, Allstate Sales Group (ASG) looked to within a two-hour drive of three international airports.
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IDAIRELAND.COM
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