Entrepreneurship & Self Employment

University College Cork is recognised as a premier European university for research, innovation applied entrepreneurship and commercialisation. Our unique infrastructure and resources, which includes BlackStone LaunchPad, IGNITE and GATEWAY UCC, supports entrepreneurial activity at the coalface. Our expertise in research, innovation, teaching and learning has attracted top staff, students, alumni, researchers, policy makers and industry into UCC’s diverse community of entrepreneurs and innovators. It has also won us many accolades including the Sunday Times University of the Year for 2016 and 2017, and being ranked amongst the top 100 universities in Europe for innovation by Reuters.

Blackstone Launchpad

Blackstone LaunchPad is UCC’s campus-based experiential entrepreneurship programme which is open to all students, alumni and staff. They support all forms of venture creation to enable the UCC community to transform their concepts to commercial reality for their benefit, Ireland’s benefit and the benefit of society as a whole. If you are interested in becoming an Entrepreneur during your time in UCC, Blackstone Launchpad is your first port of call for all of the information you need. 

Could you be an Entrepreneurial thinker and change the world? Find out more about Blackstone Launchapad UCC and their upcoming events with the Blackstone Launchpad Events Brochure

STUDENT INC. ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME

Student Inc. takes student entrepreneurship from the classroom and transfers it to an applied setting where the promoters can work full-time on teasing out the commercial merits of their respective ideas. Each student entrepreneur receives €4,000 in seed funding, office space, training and mentoring over the three summer months.

During summer 2019 there were a total of ten projects participating in the programme with students emanating from a broad range of disciplines including Accounting, Architecture, Arts, Biochemistry, Business Information Systems, Computer Science, Criminology, Economics (through Transformational Learning), Film & Screen Media Studies, Government and Social Science.

 

Enterprise Ireland Student Entrepreneur Awards

Are you a third level student with a business idea that will blow our minds? If you have an idea with real commercial potential then the Student Entrepreneur Awards is the competition for you. It could be the first step on the way to being your own boss. Check the Enterprise Ireland website for information on the 2020 Awards programme. 

There’s an incredible first place cash prize of €10,000 to be won plus the opportunity to avail of €30,000 worth of specialist advice and assistance to potentially help turn your enterprise idea into a business reality. So get a team together for the most exciting challenge of your life so far!

Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys, Grant Thornton and the Local Enterprise Office, the Student Entrepreneur Awards offers third level students from all academic disciplines and courses of study the opportunity to realise their entrepreneurial ambitions.

UCC Career Services

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