the science park was initially conceived under the 1998 good friday agreement, which designated funding for such a park in northern ireland. the not-for-profit nisp foundation was founded in 1999 by the university of ulster and queen's university belfast (with both vice chancellors, gerry mckenna and george bain being founding board members), along with representatives of the business community. most initial funding came from uk government economic initiatives, with the intention that the park would become self-sustaining. it was planned that the queen's island site would eventually be occupied by twelve buildings, including an innovation centre for small tech firms and start-ups, the queen's university institute for electronics, communications and information technologies (ecit), as well as larger companies and light manufacturing firms.