Waterford's STEM cluster appeal boosted by pharmacy and veterinary programme investment
SETU expansion will retain students who 'would otherwise have been forced to study elsewhere in Ireland and abroad'
The introduction of a new Master’s in Pharmacy programme along with and a new Veterinary Medicine degree at South East Technological University (SETU) will be transformative for the region and bolster its appeal as a location for sustainable STEM employment and innovation, Professor Peter McLoughlin, Head of the Faculty of Science and Computing at SETU has said.
Investment in new programmes in Pharmacy as well as Veterinary Medicine, which will be delivered in partnership with Teagasc’s Kildalton College, will also help the region retain students who would otherwise have been forced to study elsewhere in Ireland and abroad.
An available pool of skilled graduates will also attract more world-class enterprises to the region, Professor McLoughlin said. He made his comments as colleagues in CALMAST, SETU’s STEM Engagement Centre team, begin their work with support from Research Ireland on this year’s extended South East Science Festival. Programme.
This year, over 90 free events celebrating STEM and its relevance in our everyday lives run in libraries, theatres, schools and more for adult as well as school, college and family audiences. The Festival runs in Waterford, Tipperary and Kilkenny until November 17 inclusive. All events are free and are open for booking on www.calmast.ie
CSO records show the South East region’s population grew by 8% between 2016 and 2022. During the same period, the labour force has grown by an estimated 23%, making it one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Employment in Science and Engineering occupations grew by 28,000 between 2017 and 2022, up 5.8% annually, higher than the 3% annual increase in other sectors.
The largest 10 pharmaceutical companies in the region employ 6,250 staff and the largest 10 medical device manufacturers employ 6,250, data from South East Regional Skills Forum shows. Precision engineering/manufacturing employs an additional 9,000 people.
“We cannot underestimate just how transformative investment in Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine will be for the South East,” Professor McLoughlin said. “For far too long, we’ve seen a brain drain from the South East with students forced to leave for Dublin, Galway, Limerick or Cork or to move abroad to study these programmes. Many of these graduates never return.
“The opportunities for this region are now immense. There is a significant and growing demand for Science skills in Waterford and across the South East. This is also a prime food producing region with veterinary medicine a key pillar supporting this vital sector of our economy.
“We’ve seen how investment in education has benefitted this region in the past. We only have to look at what the Walton Institute has achieved and the spin-out industries it has created to realise the potential that lies ahead. We’ve seen the work it continues to do in ICT for the benefit of humanity and the impact this is having on the region as a cluster for hi-tech innovation and enterprise.
“The best for the South East is yet to come and we can not underestimate the impact that CALMAST and its partners are playing to foster an interest in all things Science and Technology from primary school level upwards to adult audiences. Initiatives like the South East Science Festival continue to engage, to educate, to inform and to showcase the world of opportunities out there for STEM. These are exciting times.”
The theme for this year’s South East Science Festival is ‘Regeneration’. While the South East Science Festival team and guest lecturers, speakers and presenters will be busy with schools and in University campuses across the region, a growing number of key events have been added to the programme targeting an adults and the wider public across Waterford, Carlow and Tipperary.
These include walks, talks, workshops and other interesting events focusing on whiskey distilling, on the importance of CO2, the fragility and capacity of the living earth around us, the facts around climate change, 3D printing, tinkercad and coding and more. Dr Niamh Shaw is back by popular demand with a talk in Waterford on her experience of living in extreme environments as part of a Mars science field trip.
Hosting all of the events on the 11 day programme is only made possible due to the continuous work of the CALMAST team at SETU and its outreach programme in the community throughout the year, with invaluable support from Research Ireland, Waterford City and County Council and local industry.
Among the key highlights of this year’s programme are a lecture featuring Professor John Nolan, a Fulbright Scholar and Chair for Human Nutrition Research at the School of Health Science, SETU Waterford Campus.
Prof Nolan is the Founder and Director of the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland (NRCI, www.nrci.ie) and is also the Principal Investigator of the Macular Pigment Research Group (MPRG), a specialised research group within this centre). His research group studies the role of nutrition for vision and the prevention of blindness.
Waterford Whiskey is the venue for a free event, a terroir tour where the audience discovers how they create their terroir-driven, barley-forward, natural whiskey. Places are also expected to book up quickly for a 2 hour session with Marianne, the Revamp Tramp, works on a small locker showing how to prep, prime, paint and decoupage. She will also demonstrate and talk about stencilling, uses of frog tape, distressing, glazing and many more techniques.
For bookings, log on to www.calmast.ie
Southeast Science Festival takes place in Waterford from November 9 - November 17, 2024