UCC centre sprinting ahead
A Leeside business innovation centre has announced that 370 jobs have been created through its support since 2012.
Gateway UCC, which supports researcher led start-ups and spin out companies, made the announcement yesterday in the build up to the launch of its fourth SPRINT Accelerator Programme.
The programme is designed to support early stage start-ups working on technologies generated in UCC by UCC researchers and entrepreneurs. In the programme, pre and early stage start-ups will be working with successful business mentors who will help to bring their business from idea stage through to the eventual commercialisation of the product or service.
Manager of Gateway UCC, Myriam Cronin, said: “The programme, now in its fourth year, has proved to be a huge success for UCC and we are looking forward to building and growing the next wave of intellectual property (IP) based companies.
“We envisage ten participants on each course and projects nearest to market readiness will be chosen. Each participant will be assigned a mentor with start-up experience in their areas.”
The programme will be delivered in 20 modules over an eight month period. At the end of the programme, the participants should have a business plan and road map strategy for developing their business over the first year or two of existence.
UCC President Prof Patrick O’Shea will launch the programme on 31 January. The keynote speaker for the launch of the programme will be Sean O’Sullivan, Managing Partner at venture capital company, SOSV.
Since 2012, companies supported by Gateway UCC have raised over €40 million of public and private investment across 60 start-ups. These IP-based companies have contributed more than €22 million a year in salaries to the local economy.
The state of the art facility at Gateway UCC provides a supportive ecosystem for start-ups through its programme of business supports. Such supports include mentoring and business coaching, access to financial advice and start-up funding, specialist seminars, workshops, introduction to venture-capital opportunities, business angel networks and access to UCC’s network of researchers, together with support through linkages into academic departments.