Golden Bridges sponsors

Northern Ireland Bureau is the diplomatic mission of the Northern Ireland Executive in the United States and Canada. We work to cultivate and strengthen links between various political, economic, educational, and cultural interests in Northern Ireland and North America. We also serve as a resource for individuals and organisations looking to learn and understand more about Northern Ireland, and about its relationship with the United States and Canada.

Our primary role is to promote Northern Ireland in the USA and Canada as:

• a creative, dynamic, peaceful and flourishing place, with an outward-looking, modern and resilient approach;
• a great partner for business trade and investment, for tourism, for policy collaboration and for further and higher education, including collaboration on research and development; and
• a region that is a showcase for the benefits of meaningful engagement and collaboration across the political spectrum, of the kind that helped deliver a peaceful Northern Ireland.

We work closely with a number of organisations, businesses, and institutions throughout the year to showcase the many positive developments and contributions—political, academic, cultural and civic—that are of interest to our North American audience.

NI Bureau Director: Andrew Elliott

NI Bureau Deputy Director: Eamonn McConville

Tourism Ireland is the organisation responsible for promoting the island of Ireland overseas as a leading holiday destination. It was established as one of the “six areas of co-operation” under the framework of the Belfast Agreement of Good Friday 1998. Tourism Ireland’s remit is to increase tourism to the island of Ireland and to support Northern Ireland to realise its tourism potential.

Tourism Ireland delivers world-class marketing programmes in over 20 markets across the world. Targeted marketing activity includes TV advertising, outdoor media, print, digital advertising, social media, influencer marketing, overseas publicity, co-operative marketing with carriers and other partners, and promotions to the travel trade and consumers.

In 2019, the island of Ireland welcomed almost 11.3 million overseas visitors to the island of Ireland, delivering revenue of over €5.8 billion which supported 325,000 vital jobs in communities across the island.

 

Established in 1980, ÚDARÁS NA GAELTACHTA is the regional authority responsible for the economic, social and cultural development of the Gaeltacht. The overall objective of Údarás na Gaeltachta is to ensure that Irish remains the main communal language of the Gaeltacht and is passed on to future generations.  Údarás endeavours to achieve that objective by funding and fostering a wide range of enterprise development and job creation initiatives and by supporting strategic language, cultural and community based activities.

 

Economic Mission Údarás encourages investment in the Gaeltacht through a range of generous financial and non-financial incentives for new and existing enterprises in the Gaeltacht. The development of the gteic network of 31 state-of-the-art digital hubs is heralded to be a gamechanger for the Gaeltacht allow for entrepreneurs, concept developers and remote workers to achieve world class work life balance in the Gaeltacht while being connected globally.

 

Cultural Mission All of the organisation’s activities have the aim of preserving and promoting the Irish language at their core. Údarás funds a range of strategic language and cultural initiatives as well as supporting the Irish language through its own practices.

 

Social Mission The people of the Gaeltacht play an active role in the economic, social and cultural development of their communities, largely through well-established groups such as community cooperatives and community development companies. An tÚdarás provides funding for these and provides the advice, assistance and financial support that help these community groups become strong and proactive structures in their own communities. 
https://udaras.ie/en  

 

 

Ulster University is a modern, forward-looking institution with student experience at the very heart of everything we do. Our high-quality teaching, informed by world-leading research across key sectors, boosts the economy and has a positive impact on the lives of people around the world.

The beautiful Magee Campus is home to a wide range of health programmes enabling a rich, interdisciplinary student learning environment, as well as research collaborations in personalised medicine and cognitive analytics.   

• Ulster University’s School of Nursing at Magee is the number one school of nursing on the Island of Ireland. The multi award-winning school was recently ranked 6^th in the UK and among the top 50 in the world.

• The School of Nursing hosts and operates a vital Nursing Midwifery Council Competence Testing Centre; recently expanded to meet growing demand, and one of just three in the UK, supporting nursing capacity in the UK and reflecting our expertise and leadership in nursing. 

• We welcomed the first intake of 70 students to our Graduate Entry School of Medicine in August. It offers a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) medical degree programme that is unique in Northern Ireland. 

• NI’s first BSc Paramedic Science degree is offered at Magee, the first cohort of 40 students is undertaking year one this year.  

• Undergraduate Health Sciences programmes including physiotherapy, podiatry, radiography and more will relocate to Magee from the Jordanstown campus (which is closing) from September 2022, bringing over 800 students to Magee. 

• Based at Magee and Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry Londonderry, our Undergraduate Stratified Medicine course is the only course of its kind.

City Deal Investment 

Unquestionably, the bold, transformational opportunities enabled by City Deals investment recognise the crucial role that Ulster University can play as part of an integrated plan, working with partners to regenerate the economy of the North West. 

The City Deal has education, innovation, job creation and skills development at its core and each of these priorities are also central to our work across both teaching and research.  

All four projects build upon the Magee Campus’ existing reputation as a Research and Innovation centre of excellence and an interdisciplinary hub for Medical and Health Sciences teaching:

• Centre for Industrial Digitalisation, Robotics and Automation (CIDRA) 

CIDRA will support industry and commerce in the adoption and exploitation of industrial digital technologies, robotics and automation, promoting innovation and accelerating new applications in the service sectors. The creation of more innovative and competitive businesses that have adopted new and emerging digital and smart technologies will improve productivity and create new high value jobs. 

• The Cognitive Analytics Research Laboratory (CARL) 

CARL is a new cutting-edge Applied Research Centre that brings together data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) expertise which are key technologies for future innovation. The Centre seeks to exploit the advances in High Performance Computing by applying AI and Machine Learning techniques to sectors as diverse as health, financial technology, media, energy and public policy, ensuring industry is better equipped to grasp global opportunities, deliver businesses impact and create more high value jobs. 

• The School of Medicine 

A game-changer for the region, the School of Medicine seeks to address the ongoing medical work-force shortage across the medical profession in Northern Ireland. The School of Medicine trains new doctors and has a far-reaching impact, contributing to the future of our health system and the well-being of the people of the region. 

• The Transformation Healthcare Research Innovation Value Based Ecosystem (THRIVE) 

Embedding world-class medical research in the heart of our community, THRIVE is a visionary healthcare project which meets urgent local and global healthcare needs. THRIVE will create a new healthcare quarter in the city with the development of a Healthcare Research Institute (HRI).