A cross-Border medical school is to be established by NUI Galway and the University of Ulster with the backing from some of the region's main hospitals and clinics.
The plan will "open up new opportunities" in cross-Border healthcare, medical research and economic development. It should also address the difficulties of attracting general practitioners to the region, according to the two colleges.
Research has shown that graduates are more likely to seek employment in the area where they were educated, according to NUI Galway (NUIG).
Under the plan NUIG and the University of Ulster's Magee campus will each provide a four-year programme for graduate entrants, with an additional five-year option available in Galway.
The final three years of each programme will be interchangeable, but the Magee programme will place more emphasis on primary care.
Hospitals and primary care centres in Derry, Omagh, Enniskillen, Coleraine, Ballinasloe, Castlebar, Sligo, Letterkenny and Roscommon will be involved in the training.
NUIG's medical faculty will adopt a "mentoring role" for the school at Magee campus, providing "academic expertise in programme development, sharing courses and, where appropriate, clinical teachers, and also developing the student-assessment process in order to achieve the highest standards", it says.
Common distance-learning packages will be devised as part of the University of Ulster's expertise in this area, and students will be placed in two healthcare systems.
Prof Gerry Loftus, dean of medicine and health sciences at NUIG, said the Government's Fottrell report had underlined the need to provide further opportunities for medical education at both undergraduate and graduate level.
"Working together, the medical experts and institutions in this Ulster-Connacht region have the potential to create a significant critical mass which will open up many new educational and research opportunities for students."
Prof Bernie Hannigan, pro-vice-chancellor for research and innovation at the University of Ulster, described it as a "single, highly-creative, cost-effective solution to problems that affect people identically, whether in Northern Ireland or in the Republic".
