Mayor of Derry, Cllr Brenda Stevenson, has said she is hopeful the opening of the £12 million North West Regional Science Park will stop the “brain drain” of young people leaving the city.
Cllr Stevenson was speaking after the official opening of the Northern Ireland Science Park’s headquarters on the former British army Fort George site at Pennyburn.
The new North West Regional Science Park in Derry. Photo: Lorcan Doherty Photography
The 50,000 square feet building will house software, telecoms and digital media companies and has already secured 23 tenants with local software company Sover8 as the anchor tenant.
Cllr Stevenson said the new Centre was a “significant milestone” in the development of the knowledge-based economy in the North West cross-border region.
She said she hoped it would help build and attract the hi-tech companies required to provide high value employment for the region’s talented young people in particular.
She added: “I am confident that this much-needed investment in the new science park at Fort George will act as a catalyst to stem the so-called brain drain of our young people leaving the North West to seek career opportunities further afield, and encourage further inward investment in this region.”
Derry City Council would maintain its vital focus on expansion of the University of Ulster’s Magee campus to fully maximize the investment opportunities presented by the opening of the state-of-the-art science facility in the city, the Mayor added.
Mayor Stevenson said she looked forward to the rising success of The North West Regional Science Park which is being operated in partnership with Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) and has received funding from the European Union’s INTERREG IVa programme managed by the Special European Union Programmes Body (SEUPB). The science park is owned and part-funded by The Department for Social Development.
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