Taoiseach opens €80 million building for scaled up Trinity Business School

An €80 million building for the Trinity Business School at Trinity College Dublin was opened today by Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar [Thursday, May 23rd]. The flagship development will house the scaled up Trinity Business School, a global leader in innovative business education programmes.

The six-storey building located on the city-centre campus will include an Innovation and Entrepreneurial hub, a 600 seat auditorium, smart classrooms with the latest digital technology and an executive education centre. Fronting onto Pearse Street and the University campus, the near zero energy building also provides another link between the city and the University.

Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar said: “The new Trinity Business School will educate today’s students for the jobs of tomorrow. Jobs that may not exist today; jobs that may be created by the men and women who study here. As a Government we are also preparing for the world of the future and we want to drive collaboration between Ireland’s world-class research base and industry.” 

“Under Project Ireland 2040 we’re investing half a billion euro between now and 2027 into the research, development and deployment of disruptive technologies. Under the first call, Trinity will receive over €4 million in funding over the next three years for 4 projects that the University is working on with 6 different partners.”

“The business of Trinity is education.  Inspiring new minds and creating new ideas that will change the world.  This new building will help to do that in the 21st century and beyond.  I want to congratulate the Trinity community of students, staff and alumni around the world for making this possible, and I wish everyone involved every success for the future.”

Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast said: “Trinity Business School is an example of how philanthropy can make a real difference to teaching and research and is one of the priorities of Trinity’s philanthropic campaign, ‘Inspiring Generations’, which launched publicly earlier this month. The School is already a global leader in business education. The opening of this inspiring new home for Trinity Business School in the heart of our Dublin campus will now cement the School’s position, create a first class learning environment and allow the University to expand the number of courses on offer.”

It has been financed with an EIB loan to Trinity College of €70 million and funding of €20 million supported by philanthropic donations by business leaders and companies nationally and internationally. The EIB loan will be repaid over a 30 year horizon through significant income generated by Trinity Business School.

The investment in the flagship development has been complemented by the recruitment of the highest-calibre academic and professional staff.

As the fastest growing established business school in Europe, Trinity has joined the top 2% of accredited peers in the world. The new building has enabled Trinity’s ambitious expansion of curriculum, faculty and research across international business, finance, management and entrepreneurship.

The Dean of the Trinity Business School, Professor Andrew Burke said: “The opening of this state-of- the-art building marks the achievement of a mission to grow Trinity Business School from a niche player into a top international business school. This involved the implementation of a high growth strategy that propelled the School to become the fastest growing established business school in Europe over the last three years.” 

“This transformation also secured the recognition by EQUIS ─ the world’s leading business school accreditation body. Trinity Business School is now amongst the top 2% of business schools in the world.  We now have a world class building for a world class business school located at the heart of our European capital city and hub for global business – that will be of major benefit for Ireland.”

The official opening of the new Trinity Business School building by Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar took place on the occasion of the Trinity Business + Technology Forum  an annual forum tackling the key challenges facing business and society. This year’s theme   is the ‘Business of NOW’.