The North/South Ministerial Council Meeting

The North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC), established under the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, brings together Ministers from the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to develop consultation and joint action on matters of mutual interest across the island of Ireland. Through a series of sectoral meetings, the Council provides a key mechanism for advancing cross-border collaboration in areas including health, trade, business development, education, agriculture, transport and tourism.

The NSMC Trade and Business Development Sectoral Meeting took place at Monaghan Peace Campus on 28 January 2026. InterTradeIreland's Chief Executive, Margaret Hearty, and Chair, Richard Kennedy, briefed Ministers on the organisation's impact. They highlighted InterTradeIreland's commitment to increasing investment in all-island innovation programmes, strengthening sustainable supply chains, and connecting clusters and networks to drive economic growth across the island.

As part of the meeting, AICRI Co-Leads Professors Mark Lawler (Queen's University Belfast) and William Gallagher (University College Dublin) discussed InterTradeIreland's role in linking clusters and networks. They highlighted the first steps being taken to establish the All-Island Oncology Innovation Cluster with support from InterTradeIreland's SYNERGY programme.

The cluster builds on AICRI's earlier work to map the oncology and allied digital health industry footprint across the island of Ireland. It aims to bring together researchers, clinicians, healthcare providers, industry partners, investors and enterprise agencies within a connected all-island innovation ecosystem.

By strengthening collaboration across academia, healthcare and industry, the initiative will support commercialisation, attract investment and foster innovation-led growth. It will also help accelerate the translation of research discoveries into improved patient outcomes.

The cluster's inclusion at the NSMC meeting reflected growing recognition of the role that cancer innovation can play in advancing both health and economic priorities. As an emerging example of cross-border collaboration in a high-value sector, the All-Island Oncology Innovation Cluster demonstrates how coordinated investment in research and innovation can deliver benefits for patients, strengthen the life sciences ecosystem, and contribute to the wider Shared Island agenda.