Irvinestown Road site for new Innovation centre

Published 22 Jan 2009 10:00 0 Comments

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A Centre for Rural Innovation is set to bring a professional standard of research and development - normally only found in metropolitan areas - to Fermanagh"s small/medium businesses and industry.

The South West (SW) College, which has campuses in Enniskillen, Omagh and Dungannon, is currently in the process of finalising a site in Enniskillen for an 'eco-build' facility that will house £1.5 million worth of bespoke equipment which will provide technical expertise to mentor and support industries that are significant to the development of the South West region.

The SW College have requested that Fermanagh District Council lease council owned land near Cross Cemetery on the Irvinestown Road as a possible site for the eco-friendly building, which will have a strong focus on sustainability. At the Council"s Development committee meeting in September 2008, it was recommended that they lease the land. This will be subject to planning and SW College officials have stated: 'The College, in partnership with Sligo Institution of Technology (IT), Letterkenny IT, Invest NI and Fermanagh District Council are currently exploring funding opportunities provided by Interreg four. The Council are going to any ends to help us with securing a site.'

It is expected that the Centre for Rural Innovation will be operational in approximately three years.

15 jobs have already been created and staff are currently undergoing an induction process. They will work throughout the cross-border region, which includes Enniskillen, Omagh, Dungannon, Sligo and Letterkenny. The new staff will work under three core themes which are; high technology design, IT and software and sustainability (which incorporates renewable energy).

To date, £1.5 million has been spent on equipment. The equipment caters for; rapid prototyping (this machine is currently situated in Omagh Campus and is used in the automatic construction of physical objects using solid freeform fabrication), rural sustainability (this includes environmental mapping - GPS and GIS Systems equipment which are currently based in Sligo IT), renewable energy (SW College is the only college in NI which trains wind turbine engineers) and media, (video production, sound recording and web development equipment are currently situated in the Enniskillen campus). High-tech equipment is also based on two renewable energy farms at Omagh.

Malachy McAleer, Head of Curriculum and Business Development at SW College explained: 'At present we have employed 15 new people. There will be five people in each of those three areas (high technology design, IT and software and sustainability).

'There will be a leader, plus four support staff and they are being inducted at the minute.'

Mr. McAleer added: 'They will provide a service across Tyrone and Fermanagh. They will also work closely with ITs in Letterkenny and Sligo.'

He explained that the equipment will all be situated in the new Centre for Rural Innovation in Enniskillen.

'We want to ensure that the £1.5 million worth of capital equipment is used to the maximum and that"s where the Regional Centre comes in.'

Victor Refausse, Director of the SW College continued:

'We now want to centralise our equipment, rather than having it here, there and everywhere. We want a focal point and that is Enniskillen. It is the central hub of Tyrone, Fermanagh and the border counties.'

Sustainability will be a key theme for the new Centre for Rural Innovation and the SW College is already carrying out research into renewable energy at two demonstration farms in Omagh.

At Camp Hill farm in Omagh, a community of 40 special needs individuals live and work alongside 40 special needs workers. The farm is award winning because it is a community farm which is also used by industry. It uses and studies the energy produced by their wind and solar power, ground source heat pumps, biomass and photovoltaic panels.

'We collect data on the renewable energy,' explained Mr. McAleer.

'We also have another farm outside Omagh where we are turning waste from the farm into heating energy and we are 90 percent along with the development of that.'

He said that the Centre for Rural Innovation will be like these demonstration farms in that it will be 'used as a teaching aid for students, a demonstrator for industry and the basis for research and development.'

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 22 Jan 09

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