The Institute of Technology Sligo CREST Centre/Group is part of an INTERREG funded research and innovation project, led by South West College (Northern Ireland), with partners in the Cavan Institute of Technology and Innovation (Ireland) and Dumfries and Galloway College (Scotland) (The Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies).
The origins of the project lie in two regional characteristics shared by the partners: a highly dispersed population; a predominance of SMEs in their economic make-up. In considering these characteristics, and with a shared mission to promote economic development in their regions, the partners devised an industry-academia interface model designed to build capability and capacity within SMEs, in the renewable energy area. The model was also designed to foster an innovation culture by raising the research and innovation aspirations of SMEs supported through the project.