Catalyst (science park)


Catalyst, formerly known as the Northern Ireland Science Park, was established in March 1999 to create a self-sustaining, internationally recognised, knowledge-based science park in Northern Ireland offering a commercial and research driven centre for knowledge-based industries. The park is headquartered in the Titanic Quarter, Queen's Island, Belfast and hosts a range of international and local technology related companies. It currently has seven buildings in operation offering of workspace Belfast's Titanic Quarter. 2700 engineers, researchers, entrepreneurs and executives work across the four Catalyst sites in Belfast, Derry and Ballymena. The longstanding Chief Executive Dr Norman Apsley retired in November 2018 and was replaced by Steve Orr. 2008 marked the first year of commercial independence from Government. The Park was re-branded Catalyst Inc in 2016 and Catalyst in 2019.

History

The Science Park was initially conceived under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which designated funding for such a park in Northern Ireland. The not-for-profit NISP Foundation was founded in 1999 by the University of Ulster and Queen's University Belfast, along with representatives of the business community. Most initial funding came from UK government economic initiatives, with the intention that the park would become self-sustaining. It was planned that the Queen's Island site would eventually be occupied by twelve buildings, including an Innovation Centre for small tech firms and start-ups, the Queen's University Institute for Electronics, Communications and Information Technologies, as well as larger companies and light manufacturing firms.

Companies based at Catalyst

In November 2009 it was announced that software developers SAP were entering into strategic research collaboration with Intel at the site. At the same time, BroadSoft, which opened its European headquarters in the Science Park in 2006 and has since more than doubled its space requirement, announced further expansion to eventually bring total employment there to 23.