The €24 million investment in the new STEM building for GMIT is “a great boost for Galway” and the economy of the west, as well as for third level education in Connacht-Ulster, according to a Galway TD.
The GMIT will receive capital investment for the construction of a new 5,500sq metre science, technology, engineering, and mathematics building on its Dublin Road campus. The investment is part of a €200 million Public-Private Partnership investment package for the State’s Institutes of Technology announced by Minister for Education, Richard Bruton this week.
The development has been welcomed by the Minister for Community Development, Natural Resources and Digital Development, and Fine Gael TD for Galway West, Seán Kyne, who said GMIT is carrying out “diverse and valuable work” in the areas of renewable technologies, marine, and ocean research as well as digital technologies.
He noted that, with 47 per cent of the almost 5,600 full-time undergraduates at GMIT undertaking STEM area courses, the new STEM building will “clearly benefit students and staff”. He added that the development is also “greatly supports” the plans for the new Connacht Ulster Alliance Technological University - an alliance of GMIT, including its campuses in Galway, Castlebar, Letterfrack and Mountbellew, with the Sligo and Letterkenny ITs. Minister Kyne described the alliance as “vital for educational and economic development in the West and North West”.
