BT Ireland Innovation Centre (BTIIC)
The Centre will undertake more than £7 million worth of joint research creating 27 new research opportunities – 15 postdoctoral researchers and 12 PhD students.
In addition to the research opportunities in Ulster University, there will be 50 new graduate roles in the BT Belfast Global Development Centre. Costing an estimated £28.6 million in all, UU will receive approximately £9 million of funding from Invest Northern Ireland.
The Centre seeks to innovate by:
- Bringing together academic researchers, industrial researchers and industrial engineers in one centre, with a focus on application of research and the power of communications to enhance our world.
- Providing a unique opportunity for down-streaming of research results from University to Industry, providing valuable REF (Research Excellence Framework) case studies for the University and a strong research underpinning for the BT family.
Benefits/Outcomes
- Helps attract and retain Northern Ireland’s considerable IT talent
- An additional £1.4m of annual salaries into the Northern Ireland economy
- Access to Advanced Research and Development in several core technology areas of focus within Intelligent Systems and IoT
- Supporting the region’s ability to attract foreign direct investment.
“Our new innovation centre will operate alongside our existing Belfast Global Development Centre, the BT Labs in Suffolk and our global network of technology scouts to further strengthen our research and innovation capability, bringing together industrial engineers and university researchers”.
Howard Watson, Service and Operations CEO, BT