NUI Galway has secured €15 million in funding under the Higher Education Strategic Infrastructural Fund (HESIF) – Project Ireland 2040, announced by Minister for Education Joe McHugh T.D. for the redevelopment of the James Hardiman Library.

The project – the new Library and Learning Commons – will redevelop, reconceptualise and fundamentally transform the James Hardiman Library building at NUI Galway in order to embrace, promote and support evolving approaches to teaching and learning.

Welcoming the announcement, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, President of NUI Galway said: “I am delighted to welcome this very substantial support for NUI Galway’s library redevelopment which is a strong endorsement for teaching and learning at this University. This development will have a distinctively transformative impact on the learning experience of our students at NUI Galway.

“Renewing higher education for the needs of our time and our place demands new types of space that allow deeper forms of engagement and new forms of connection between teaching, learning, research, and scholarship. This investment provides an opportunity to reconceive the library as an inclusive, accessible centre for active learning, a place of shared curiosity and for the co-development of knowledge and understanding in the world and for the world. I would like to thank the Department and the HEA for acknowledging our vision for HE in Ireland and in particular here in the west.

“This is great news for NUI Galway, as well as for our broader University community. Today’s announcement is a clear signal of our ambition for a new chapter in our University’s proud history.”

John Cox, University Librarian, commented: “The transformed Library will be an inspirational, welcoming, space for learning and creativity, facilitating collaborative discovery and interdisciplinary engagement, with access to the world’s knowledge via a comprehensive digital library.”