News 2014
UCC Entrepreneur of the Year Competition
BEES postgraduate student Tara Duggan has been nominated as UCC University Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 for her work with the organic fertilizer company Celtic Worms.
The UCC Entrepreneur of the Year Awards aim to nurture creativity and hone entrepreneurial skills, by encouraging UCC students to express their entrepreneurial flair and develop novel ideas for a new business.
Sponsored by Cork City and County Enterprise Boards, Bank of Ireland, Accenture, the UCC Entrepreneurial and Social Society (E&S), the College of Business and Law and Enterprise Ireland, the UCC Entrepreneur of the Year Awards has a prize fund of €8,000.
Tara is chief researcher with Celtic Worms as well as a PhD researcher in the School of BEES and managing director of Fusion Environmental and Energy Consultants Ltd. specialising in designing and managing large-scale composting facilities, in Ireland and abroad.
Tara also recently collected a prize from the Chartered Institution of Waste Management for her talk at the Environ 2014 conference in Trinity College, Dublin.
Celtic Worms is the first company to successfully commercialise vermicomposting (worm farming) in Ireland. The company is owned by a collective of over 30 farmers, and is based in the stunning countryside of Bantry, West Cork. The Company was brought together by a keen group of locals, who wished to set up a community-owned company, that would bring employment into the area.
Ten shortlisted finalists will showcase their businesses from 4pm on Thursday 20th March at De Vere Hall, UCC, with the winners announced at 5pm on the day. Prizes will be awarded for 'Most Technologically Innovative Idea' and 'Emerging and Dynamic Award' as well as the overall University Entrepreneur of the Year Award.