BD announces R&D centre for Limerick

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), has announced its plans to open a new research and development (R&D) Centre of Excellence in Limerick and bring 100 new jobs to the city.

The €21 million investment in the new Centre of Excellence includes an extensive renovation of the former UniGolf facility in the National Technology Park. Once completed, it is expected to create more than 200 high-tech positions, which includes more than 100 BD jobs that already exist in Limerick and the 100 new positions. 

The project is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation through the Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland.

The BD Limerick Centre of Excellence will initially be focused on product and software development, clinical research instrumentation and prototype development, primarily for the company’s life sciences businesses. 

Ellen Strahlman, executive vice president R&D and chief medical Officer for BD said: “Ireland is an important part of our growth plans, and the Limerick Centre of Excellence is foundational in our objective to build an agile, world-class global organisation to deliver an R&D portfolio that drives growth. This will require significant hiring of R&D associates, collaboration with local universities and the development of new technical capabilities.

“Areas served by activities and products arising from our new R&D Centre of Excellence will include the fields of microbiology and molecular biology, clinical and cellular research analysis, and industrial microbiology.

“Customers will include hospitals, laboratories and clinics, reference laboratories, industrial laboratories, physicians’ office practices, alternate site health care, academic and government institutions, and research facilities. Limerick will be very important for our strategic growth.”