NDRC has announced the opening of Ireland’s first science venture accelerator, VentureLab, for applications for its first full programme, to begin in the new year.
NDRC VentureLab is targeted at supporting ventures where the nature of the proposition requires a greater depth of science, tech or intellectual property. The programme will take place over six months and provide investment of up to €100,000 for each participant.
NDRC is also establishing a pre-accelerator programme, SeedLab, which will run for five weeks from November. This is for scientists or researchers who believe their project would be suited to NDRC VentureLab but would benefit from working alongside business and tech professional prior to the full programme. Professionals in business development, marketing and sales are also encouraged to take part in SeedLab.
Speaking about NDRC VentureLab today, NDRC VentureLab director Dan Crowley, said: "Building on our unique position in Ireland’s science and innovation ecosystem, we established the NDRC VentureLab investment programme. It is widely recognised that creating new ventures based on science and research has its own particular challenges and requires a specialist approach. As a result, in-depth process and tailored support are needed, often outside of the walls of the university, in order to apply impactful research to big market problems.
"NDRC VentureLab has put in place a tailored investment programme that is suited to early stage enterprises in the science and innovation space. To begin with, we recognised that a longer time period than usual for accelerator programmes is needed and the six months in which NDRC VentureLab runs will provide its participants with an appropriate runway to develop their offering."
Previous successful NDRC-supported businesses include Silvercloud Health, which has secured €1.5 million in inward investment; and NVMdurance, which won the award for Most Innovative Technology at Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara ifor its work on solid state disks.
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