Provost’s welcome Dear Friends, It’s now a year since we held two milestone launches here on campus: the launch of the public phase of our philanthropic campaign, Inspiring Generations , on 2 May 2019 and the opening of the Trinity Business School on 23 May. Normally we would be celebrating both anniversaries with campus events. Social distancing doesn’t allow for that but I welcome this Impact Report as a chance to thank our generous donors and supporters, to mark the philanthropic highlights of year 2018-19, and to reinforce the importance of alumni and friends in driving excellence across the university. Inspiring Generations is Trinity’s first ever comprehensive, university-wide philanthropic campaign, and the largest such campaign ever launched on the island of Ireland. With this campaign, we’re seeking to enhance the college’s long tradition of philanthropy, and to involve our global community of alumni, friends and businesses in supporting students to access world-class education, and researchers to do work of global impact. Our targets for Inspiring Generations are ambitious: to raise €400 million in donations and 150,000 hours in volunteering. As per the international norm for fundraising campaigns of this scale, we didn’t move to the public phase until more than half the financial goal had been reached, so when we launched Inspiring Generations in May 2019, we had already raised €272 million. This Impact Report details some of the donations to priority projects which have enabled us to reach that figure, as well as other key supports to projects and initiatives outside the campaign. Designed by Scott Tallon Walker, the iconic six-storey building for Trinity Business School (TBS) houses Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace, and the A & K Dargan theatre, which is now the largest auditorium in the university. This flagship, near zero energy building was realised by donations from alumni and friends who raised a quarter of the funding, while the Bank of Ireland is supporting Tangent. It’s this generosity and enthusiasm which inspired us to reach out worldwide for Inspiring Generations . under the ‘New Generations’ programme. As this Report makes clear, the support from alumni and friends for these priority projects has been phenomenal. I’m delighted to report that as of May 2020 we’ve raised €342 million and 144,000 hours in volunteering so we’re well on target to meet our campaign goals . Finally, let me say how heartened I am by the response of the Trinity community to the current challenges around Covid19. Alumni and friends are providing support to help students through economic hardship and they are helping fund vital research. In what is such a difficult time for everyone globally, it’s wonderful that our community is pulling together and showing a collective belief in our university’s power to make a difference. The priority projects of Inspiring Generations include the redevelopment of the Old Library to include a Research Collections Study Centre, the Engineering, Environment & Emerging Technologies (E3), the Trinity St James’s Cancer Institute as well as funding student scholarships and research fellowships Patrick Prendergast Provost 3
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