Two IGNITE alumni have been named in this year's Sunday Independent Thirty Under 30 List.

Shannen O' Reilly of TrustDish and Elvis Seporaitis of Volta Robotics have both been selected by the Sunday Independent as young business trailblazers to look out for in 2025.

University College Cork (UCC) has appointed its five Entrepreneurs in Residence as Adjunct Professors within Cork University Business School (CUBS) in the College of Business and Law.

Two women led start-ups at University College Cork (UCC) have received funding to translate their research into innovative companies that will benefit human health globally. The start-ups will drive advances in women’s health, and skin health.

In recent years, University College Cork (UCC) has taken a significant leap forward by embedding sustainability values into its entrepreneurship education.

As part of UCC’s Innovation in Action series, we spoke with Dr Lana Repar from Cork University Business School (CUBS) about the transformative initiatives she leads along with Prof. Joe Bogue to foster SDGs-driven entrepreneurship at UCC. 

A lead product from UCC spin-out company ProVascTec has been awarded a €2.1 million research grant from Eurostars, part of the European Partnership on Innovative SMEs. The partnership is co-funded by the European Union through Horizon Europe.

UCC has featured in the top 3 rankings for almost all technology transfer outputs in Knowledge Transfer Ireland’s (KTI) 2023 Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey.  

The Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey is a comprehensive report on knowledge transfer activities in Ireland, published annually by KTI. The survey, which collects data from Ireland’s Higher Education Institutes including eight Universities, five Technological Universities, two Institutes of Technology and two Colleges, also incorporates contributions from Teagasc, the Marine Institute and Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR).  

As part of our Innovation in Action in UCC series, we have been speaking to the Quercus Innovation and Entrepreneurship scholars about their experience of entrepreneurship as a third level student and the supports available for budding student entrepreneurs in UCC. The Quercus Talented Students’ Programme supports and promotes excellence in academia, sport, creative and performing arts, active citizenship, and innovation/entrepreneurship. The Quercus programme awards up to three scholarships each year to students registered on an undergraduate/level 8 programme, who demonstrate an exceptional level of excellence in the innovation and/or entrepreneurial space.

2023 was a busy year of innovative and entrepreneurial activity across the UCC campus, with 4 spin-outs created, 29 start-ups supported, 39 consulting contracts with businesses and 65 participants completing either the SPRINT accelerator or IGNITE incubation programmes. UCC Innovation’s Impact Report 2023 highlights the achievements of UCC researchers as they work to develop economic and societal impact from their expertise, research and creativity.

UCC's first ever Innovation Week will take place from April 15th - 19th 2024. The aim of Innovation Week is to showcase some of the excellent innovations from across the UCC ecosystem, and to encourage UCC students, graduates, and researchers alike to think about the different ways that their ideas and research can be transformed to create economic and societal impact.

International Women’s Day takes place today (March 8^th). The campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 is Inspire Inclusion, emphasising the importance of diversity and empowerment in all aspects of society.

To mark International Women’s Day this year, UCC Innovation are proud to showcase three women within our UCC Innovation ecosystem, who Inspire Inclusion through their innovative endeavours.

Today is International Women’s Day. The campaign theme 2024 is Inspire Inclusion, emphasising the importance of diversity and empowerment in all aspects of society. To mark International Women’s Day, UCC Innovation is showcasing three women within the UCC Innovation ecosystem, who Inspire Inclusion through their innovative endeavours.

Shannen O’ Reilly is CEO and Co-Founder at TrustDish, and former IGNITE participant. Shannen grew up working in food retail in her family business. This inspired her love for business and wanting to pursue an undergraduate in Commerce.

As International Women’s Day 2024 comes to a close, we speak to CEO of Rethink Ireland and UCC Entrepreneur in Residence, Deirdre Mortell about how she Inspires Inclusion through her innovative endeavours.

Rethink Ireland was created by the Irish Government, and launched by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny in 2016. Deirdre was involved in the social innovation charity from the offset, putting together the market opportunity and business plan, and raising funds to get it off the ground.  

• In line with the University’s strategic goal of developing an innovative culture and entrepreneurial campus, UCC’s Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) programme will support the University in promoting and encouraging entrepreneurial activity among UCC staff, students and graduates.
• UCC has developed and is nurturing an entrepreneurial ecosystem that aims to encourage, create and support fifty new ventures in the next two years.

The second national deep tech partner opportunity platform (POP), took place recently in Cork to create top class start-up teams. 

At this exclusive invite-only event, dubbed Ireland’s “Davos for Deep Tech”, Ireland’s State-funded deep tech research institutes pooled their top venture scientists to meet with Ireland’s most seasoned executives and entrepreneurs.  

As part of our Innovation in Action in UCC series, we have been speaking to the Quercus Innovation and Entrepreneurship scholars about their experience of entrepreneurship as a third level student and the supports available for budding entrepreneurs in UCC. The Quercus Talented Students’ Programme supports and promotes excellence in academia, sport, creative and performing arts, active citizenship, and innovation/entrepreneurship. Quercus awards up to three scholarships each year to students registered on an undergraduate/level 8 programme, who demonstrate an exceptional level of excellence in the innovation and/or entrepreneurial space.