25th November 2003

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The University of Ulster’s School of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Strategy is one of the key sponsors of an education initiative aimed at forming “digital bridges” between schools in the two communities in Northern Ireland.

ADREAM, which will be rolled out across the province next year, is an Internet-based drive to encourage virtual collaboration between schools where physical integration has proved difficult because of community tensions.

The ADREAM portal will facilitate intercommunication and ‘clustering’ between schools and will help build closer links to enable sharing of ideas and physical assets.

Mark Durkin, head of the School, said: “These children will be our students of the future. The sooner they begin to think in an entrepreneurial and innovative way the better able they will be to capitalize on the entrepreneurial teaching inputs we have to offer when they come to university. ADREAM clearly helps stimulate such thinking and we are delighted to be associated with such an initiative.”

A pilot scheme involving a small number of schools has already been successfully completed and next year the initiative will be expanded. The project covers several areas of the primary and secondary school curricula.

Peter Bunting, chair of ADREAM, said: “We have a chance to do something remarkable through technology with ADREAM – to help you people from across Northern Ireland support citizenship through the development of digital bridges”.

Frank McGonagle from MMC Consulting, creator of ADREAM, said: “The sponsorship approach and philosophy actively fosters and promotes social and digital inclusion, corporate responsibility, cause related marketing and citizenship to the widest possible audience. We are delighted to have the School of Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Strategy on board as sponsor of the Innovation Award.”

The ADREAM project is part funded by the European Union and is also supported by Invest Northern Ireland.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk