Northern Ireland’s higher education institution Queen’s University is set to expand their Institute of Electronics, Communications and IT campus situated at Catalyst Inc, formerly known as the Northern Ireland Science Park. The proposed plans outline a significant extension to the front of the building – which would be four-storeys high.

Queen’s University, who’re set to share details on their ongoing and future development plans at our Northern Ireland Conference, are looking to add another 31,500 sq ft of space as part of a five-year plan for the buildings, which would enable them to expand the scope of its research and house more staff. The building currently sits over three floors and focuses on cyber security, wireless innovation, data sciences and scalable computing – all of which are expected to help drive economic growth in the coming years.

A report announcing the development plans and the need for the additional space says: ”Whilst providing an important R&D facility, it is clear however that the existing ECIT building needs to expand in order to accommodate the institute’s future plans. Over the next five years ECIT have ambitious growth figures for both academic and research staff and their current facility, which is approx. 14 years old, is not capable of accommodating the additional numbers.”

The extension, which would replace a car-park on the site, would include:

  • A central glass tower within the new extension
  • Shared meeting spaces
  • Open plan office space
  • 50-person teaching laboratory
  • Hybrid lab
  • Server room

We’re excited to hear from Damien Toner, Director of Estates at Queen’s University Belfast at our Northern Ireland Development Plans Conference – and we’ll hopefully see you there!