Connected

Connected Programme

Connected is a Department for the Economy funded programme designed to promote collaboration and knowledge exchange between academia and small to medium businesses.

With access to a vast pool of talent, expertise, research capability and world class facilities, universities and colleges of Further Education in Northern Ireland want to get connected with local businesses to share their valuable resources.

Northern Regional College, the five other FE colleges, Queen’s University, Ulster University and the Open University are all part of this exciting partnership programme.

 

Collaborating for Success

Working in collaboration with universities and colleges can bring real and measurable benefits to your business but it can be challenging to access the necessary support and relevant expertise.

At Northern Regional College, we will work with you to identify what is needed and then help open the right doors to enable your business to access the resources, funding and support to bring about major benefits and help grow your business.

Connected business benefits:

Technical support & expertise - behind the doors of our universities and colleges of further and higher education is a wealth of talent and resources, innovative ideas, skills and support to help businesses of all sizes to meet business goals. We can help identify a potential project, which may include testing and feasibility studies.

Access to industry-standard facilities and equipment - we are proud of our state-of the-art facilities across multiple campuses. The Connected programme - and other related funding streams -  give businesess access to our facilities and specialist equipment for research, development and innovation.

Financial support – we can help signpost you to relevant funding support to minimise costs to your business. 

Grow & evolve your business – we can bring new perspectives to problem solving, identify and develop new products and processes to create different markets for your business.

Sharing knowledge & expertise – we can support you to develop important knowledge sharing networks and embed an innovation culture across your business with new capabilities, knowledge, and skills.  Our leading academics  are ready, willing and able to share their expertise to support your business.

Lead partner on engineering partner with Queen’s University

Having successfully submitted a competitive fund bid, Northern Regional College is the lead partner on an industrial robotics Connected project with Queen’s University Belfast which also includes a cluster of engineering companies such as McAuley Engineering, Hutchinson Engineering, Quad-X and Maine Group. 

And there’s more

Northern Regional College’s expertise is not just confined to engineering. The College also offers support and expertise in life and health sciences, hospitality and tourism, digital transformation technologies and much more.  

Get in Contact today!

Our team of Technical Specialists are on hand and are more than happy to discuss your business needs.

Case Studies