As part of a European Union (EU) project called TechTown, both Limerick City and County Council will aim to create a jobs boost for the region to the tune of 1,000 jobs over three years.

The TechTown project is part of the EU’s Urbact programme, which helps cities to develop pragmatic solutions that are new and sustainable and that integrate economic, social and environmental urban topics and, now, Limerick has entered the fold.

When established, the TechTown model will set out to maximise the job creation potential of the digital economy by examining how IT clusters can work at city level while also trying to support businesses to get the necessary access to digital skills to grow their business.

It’s hoped that Limerick’s involvement in the TechTown will aid the projected investment of the €1bn-plus Limerick 2030 Economic and Spatial Plan to transform Limerick city centre, wider county and mid-west region.

Building on a successful 2015

The region has already been getting a number of successful clusters underway, with news last September revealing that 500 new jobs in start-ups and multinationals providing everything from sports tech to food and nutrition products are to be created at the National Sports Cluster in Limerick.

Likewise, just today, it’s been revealed that the ride-sharing company Uber has already spent €4m in the region, having first announced it was to create 300 jobs in Limerick in July 2015.

Speaking of the announcement, the head of economic development at Limerick City and County Council, LiamConneally, said: “Since its establishment, [Limerick 2030] has created more than 200 high-skilled IT jobs and has been acknowledged as a major FDI skills innovation.

“The FDI industry in Limerick believes that the initiative has the potential to create 1,000 IT jobs in the next three years. Already a new branch of the programme is in development for technicians.”

Limerick at night image via Shutterstock