A state of the art new STEM building for GMIT has achieved another important stepping stone towards completion, with the project going to tender next year.
Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris confirmed on Monday that the government is proceeding with the Higher Education Public Private Partnership programme including GMIT’s new STEM building.
Galway West TD Hildegarde Naughton said that construction of the new building will go to tender in early 2021.
Pleased to announce that my colleague Minister @SimonHarrisTD has approved a new STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering,Maths) building for @GMITOfficial and construction will go to tender early next year. Great boost for GMIT and the broader region. #Galway pic.twitter.com/1gIVDxeYuA
— Hildegarde Naughton (@1Hildegarde) August 18, 2020
The new 5,500 sqm STEM building project has been developed by GMIT in association with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; the Higher Education Authority, and the National Development Finance Agency.
Part of Project Ireland 2040, planning permission was first secured for the new building in January of this year.
The new building is meant to cater for the growth in students taking STEM courses in recent years, with technology to allow for innovative and flexible new approaches to teaching and learning.
“I very much welcome the Government’s announcement this week in relation to the PPP projects,” said Dr Orla Flynn, President of GMIT.
“GMIT is a significant provider of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates for the Western region and beyond.
Dr Flynn said that improving the Institute of Technology’s buildings and facilities is a “key enabler” of their strategic plan up to 2023.
She added that its construction will be a “major step” towards realising GMIT’s potential in those disciplines.
“As we move forward to achieve our ambitions of becoming a Technological University along with partners IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT, our staff, students and researchers will need world-class facilities.”
“This facility is long overdue, and it is just one of a number of projects in our masterplan,” she concluded
The new STEM building will be located on the eastern side of the Dublin Road campus in Galway.
When completed it will comprise three storeys with recessed fourth floor and a link to the existing building at ground floor level with two bridges linking at first floor level.
It will accommodate classrooms, laboratories, meeting rooms, research labs, seminar rooms, lecture theatres and social spaces.
Dr Des Foley, Head of the School of Science & Computing, said this announcement is a “huge boost” for them.
“It will provide our students with the opportunity to study in new state-of-the art facilities,” he added.
“The building will vastly increase the quality of our laboratory and general teaching space for science, computing and engineering, and it has been designed to ensure we maintain our ethos of strongly practical and applied programmes.”
