Academy

The Innovation Academy is the educational centrepiece of the Innovation Alliance. The Academy is a collaborative joint venture in PhD education that builds on existing resources and synergies between the two institutions and recognises the need for Higher Education to be a catalyst for innovation in Ireland.

The mission of the Academy is to develop a new breed of creative graduate, expert in their discipline, but with a thorough understanding of how innovation can rapidly convert knowledge, ideas and inventions into products, services and policies for economic and social benefit. All of them will be trained to recognise the innovation potential of blue skies research, while some of them will become entrepreneurs. Innovation is regarded in its broadest sense of exploiting new ideas in a competitive world; not restricted to science, engineering, technology and business, but encompassing the creativity, leadership, cultural and policy innovation of arts and humanities.

The Academy will play a central role in the emergence of Ireland as a global hub for innovation. Through its formation, the two universities will “future proof” quality graduate education by dove-tailing with discipline-based PhD programmes, thus enhancing Ireland’s reputation for PhD education and attracting high-quality international students.