Pictured: Bernard Byrne, director of Personal, Business and Corporate Banking AIB; Gerry O'Brien, Bursar and Vice President, UCD; David Duffy, Chief Executive Officer, AIB; and Andrew Deeks, President, UCD
AIB has invested in a seven-year Partnership and Innovation Initiative with UCD that will see the bank and the university work on original research across a number of sectors.
This new innovation partnership covers two main areas – expertise and scholarship.
Firstly, it seeks to support academic and innovation expertise that can enable initiatives designed to improve the economic and social well-being of the country. Secondly, it will promote scholarship in the areas of leadership, service to the community and knowledge transfer.
“Recognising the contribution of academic expertise and the importance of education and scholarship to the national recovery, this innovation partnership between UCD and AIB is a practical demonstration of our commitment to the national agenda,” explained UCD president Professor Andrew Deeks.
Research collaboration
Under the terms of the agreement, AIB will collaborate with the university including on original research in areas such as agriculture, food, medicine, information and communications technology (ICT), biopharma, business and entrepreneurship.
The partnership will support research to identify and develop the most effective higher educational environments to produce graduates who can thrive in the national and international marketplaces.
Some of the funds will be earmarked for scholarships to support access to education for the economically disadvantaged, people with a disability and mature students.
The bank also announced it was launching the AIB/UCD Student Life Fund, working in partnership with the university.
AIB has a long-standing relationship with UCD. The bank was a founding sponsor for Nova UCD – the university’s incubation and technology transfer facility – which has supported over thirty spin-out companies in the past ten years.
The collaboration will also see the establishment of a new AIB student branch.
“The new AIB branch on UCD will be a landmark student branch, co-designed with input from students themselves. Customers will have access to the latest in banking technology and will benefit from extended opening hours,” said David Duffy, CEO of AIB.
