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Creating Opportunity Out of Change | SPECIAL FEATURE
(...Continued from page 24) to our undergraduate courses; students from socio-economic disadvantaged areas can compete through alternative admissions routes to the University. Offering opportunity to the brightest students from whatever background has been, and will continue to be, a core value in Trinity.
One outcome of these initiatives we should see will be the University community made up of people from an even greater diversity of backgrounds to the ultimate benefi t of society. And a university education should be the basis of the leadership that Dr Austin O’Carroll is searching for, the leadership in ideas that will help our society tackle such seemingly intractable problems as managing the complexities of our health service or climate change or creating a sustainable society.
I think many will agree with what you have just said – but in times like this we are also tempted to remember Bill Clinton’s observation – “It’s the economy, stupid”
Of course, leadership is needed here too. I’d like to take up on Shane Naughton’s point in his interview (see page 21) – that Trinity needs to lead in innovation and become and “R&D engine”. Now Trinity has much more to its mission than R&D but the sentiment is right – we must continue to bring the outputs of research and scholarship into the public domain turning them where possible into commercial opportunities and employment opportunities for our graduates – this is a key objective of the fi ve-year Strategic Plan, a process that is already well underway in TCD with the development of an Open Innovation policy. Examples of recent spin-off companies include Eblana Photonics, Havok, IdenteGEN and Opsona Therapeutics. Some eight proposals for campus company formation are currently being put forward in College.
The University has intellectual property that can directly create jobs, and we want to make this happen as effectively as possible. We want to do more of this by invigorating the Trinity Technology Enterprise Campus on Pearse Street as a location for the development of spin-out companies and indeed spin-in companies. We want companies to view Dublin as the best place to conduct their research, but we need the appropriate legal structure and cultural and creative environment to make Dublin an innovation city that creative and innovative individuals are drawn to. This is what the recently launched TCD-UCD Innovation Alliance is going to promote. Trinity, as the University of Dublin, has a vision for Dublin where it can become a city that is alive with new opportunities deriving from our research and scholarship.
Where would you like to see Trinity in 2014?
Our recognition as a University of global consequence will be even stronger. Staff, students, alumni, and friends will have a sense of what we are doing to achieve this vision. It’s important that Trinity plays a leadership role on the international stage for Ireland, the Irish higher education system and for all Irish people, including our alumni.
And finally, what role do you think our alumni could play in helping Trinity, and how might Trinity help them?
Our alumni are always helping us through their participation in College life, to their involvement with external advisory boards, to their important role as ambassadors for Trinity abroad where many I know speak proudly of their time in Trinity. Alumni are central to Trinity’s success. I agree with Shane Naughton who touches on this important element of building better linkages. Trinity needs to play an important role in developing networks that will promote the exchange of ideas, the offering of support and the maintenance of relationships.
So I hope that some of our friends and alumni will be interested in learning more about the Strategic Plan when it is published next month; it's not light reading by any means but it offers I hope a comprehensive view of where we are going and presents ideas for how alumni can further engage with the College if they wish to do so, and Trinity needs its alumni and friends to achieve its noble purpose.
The Trinity College Strategic Plan will be launched in the week commencing Monday 23rd November 2009. Should alumni or friends of the College wish to attend the launch, please e-mail Trinity Foundation at
foundation@tcd.ie
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