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The funding will be delivered from EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Digital Fund.

In addition to the CEF funding, both ATU and Vodafone Ireland are investing in the initiative, bringing the total investment in Irish education to €6.25 million.

The fund will be used to develop cutting-edge Extended Reality (XR) labs powered by a private 5G standalone network and on-campus edge computing delivered by Vodafone Ireland.

Italian technology company FifthIngenium, part of the consortium, will leverage its expertise in designing cutting-edge educational applications to support the development of the XR experience. 

The project will be launched by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless later this morning. The programme application process was supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport.

The initiative will be piloted at ATU Donegal, where students will gain access to immersive virtual and augmented reality environments that replicate physical labs and workshops.  

This funding will allow students to learn in new and flexible ways, combining classroom teaching with remote and virtual training – making education more accessible, especially for people living in rural areas or those balancing work, study and apprenticeship programmes.

Specifically, the new training tools will include:

• Virtual construction labs where students can practice building using digital models.
• Immersive learning platforms that simulate real building and construction environments.
• 3D video streaming to help students learn technical skills through realistic simulations.

The initiative is part of a wider €12.3 million European programme called 5G-SHARE, which encourages universities to work together and share knowledge across borders. ATU and Vodafone will collaborate with universities in Romania and the Czech Republic to test new ways of teaching using 5G.

The fund was secured with the support of Vodafone’s Connected Education programme – a major global Vodafone initiative designed to transform learning experiences through advanced technology and connectivity, creating a more inclusive digital society.