The first 10 participants in the new Sprint accelerator programme based at Gateway UCC have been signed up. The successful start-ups come from areas such as bioinformatics, digital mobile, medtech, e-health, nutrition and food health, and ICT.
These pre- and early stage start-ups will be working with experienced business mentors, as well as being coached in business development, scaling and growth internationally. The Sprint programme is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Bank of Ireland and Cork City LEO.
“Using our extensive experience in the area of commercialising research, early stage companies and spin-outs, Sprint has been developed to increase the number and the success rate of knowledge based start-up companies, utilising intellectual property from UCC,” said Prof Anita Maguire, VP Innovation and Research at University College Cork.
Speaking at the launch, Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, said: “The Sprint accelerator programme contributes positively to the target outlined in The Action Plan for Jobs National Entrepreneurship Policy, to double the jobs impact of start-ups in Ireland in the next five years. This programme is yet another example of how the Government’s investment in research programmes under Enterprise Ireland and SFI can translate into commercially successful, global focused companies that create jobs and enhance all our lives.”
“The pre and early stage start-ups, joining Sprint, are all in the HPSU (high potential start-up) space, are IP based and have the potential to create up to 100 new innovation based jobs in the next three years,” said Myriam Cronin, manager of Gateway UCC.
Gateway UCC works with clients from their idea stage of development right through to the eventual commercialisation of the product or service.
Since opening in 2011, Gateway UCC Business Incubation & Innovation Centre has supported over 30 start-ups, which between them now employ 180 people and contribute an estimated €13 million in wages and €4 million in tax annually to the local economy.
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