Formation of the Shannon Consortium
The Shannon Consortium was formed in 2006 as a vehicle for accessing the HEA Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). The founding Consortium partners were the University of Limerick (UL), Limerick Institute of Technology (now the Technical University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest) and the Institute of Technology, Tralee (which later left the Consortium to build a partnership with Cork Institute of Technology).
The partners invited Mary Immaculate College to join the Consortium in order to build upon rich inter-institutional relationships in areas such as Teaching & Learning that had the potential to attract SIF funding. The Consortium was enormously successful. It quickly became a celebrated exemplar of collaboration and of resource sharing that underpinned regional development strategy.
The three HEIs worked in tandem with the main public, statutory and civic organisations to promote Limerick City and the wider hinterland as a locus for high-value innovation. The Consortium was also a model for the regional 'clustering' model for higher education that emerged on foot of the process of reconfiguring the higher education landscape in Ireland that was overseen by the HEA on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills. Although the Consortium was dissolved a decade later with the advent of the Technological University system, its enduring legacy was a strongly held commitment to meaningful and impactful inter-institutional partnership continues to be held by MIC, UL and TUS, and which was oriented towards realisation of the traditional university ideal of contributing to the public good.
