News and Events
Gateway UCC creates 450 jobs by supporting 70 start-ups
GatewayUCC, part of UCC Innovation, has announced that the companies it has worked with and supported since 2012 have created more than 450 jobs. GatewayUCC supports researcher-led start-up and spin-out companies.
In the past nine years, GatewayUCC supported companies have raised in excess of €50 million of public and private investment and supported over 70 start-ups and pre-start-ups based on IP from the university. These IP based companies have contributed more than €25 million a year in salaries to the local economy.
On Thursday 24th March, GatewayUCC announced the winners of its sixth SPRINT Awards for 2022. SPRINT is an accelerator programme which is designed to support early stage start-up companies working on technologies generated in UCC by researchers and entrepreneurs. Professor John O’Halloran, President of University College Cork, Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Professor John Cryan, Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC were amongst those speaking at the event.
Once again, in the 2021/2022 cohort, there was strong interest from researchers from across the whole UCC campus in participating in the SPRINT Programme.
40% of participants are female founders, which represents the largest intake of female founders in the programme’s history.
Head of GatewayUCC and Director of SPRINT Accelerator Programme, Myriam Cronin said: “We are delighted to return to an in-person awards on campus this year to celebrate the wonderful work of UCC researchers that is being supported in the SPRINT programme. With the 2022 new intake of researchers, this brings to 80 participants to date through the programme, all looking to start technology based new ventures."
Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC, Professor John Cryan said: "As part of UCC Innovation, SPRINT accelerates the movement of research out of the labs and into commercial application, bringing new medical devices and technologies into clinicians’ hands and improving outcomes for patients.
Today we see just a sample of what is happening here in UCC research, exciting developments in disruptive technologies resulting in potentially game changing impacts."
CEO of Enterprise Ireland, Leo Clancy was the key-note speaker at the event. He said: "Enterprise Ireland works closely with emerging companies to ensure they can access global markets, attract investment and talent, to create jobs and scale quickly. Increasing high potential start-ups from the third level sector is a key focus in EI's strategy and we are delighted to support the SPRINT Programme which identifies and supports exciting leading edge technologies being developed in UCC.”
GatewayUCC SPRINT Award 2022 winners
- SPRINT Investor Ready Award 2022 – Prof Deirdre Murray, Mike Cunneen, Liltoda Ltd, INFANT
- SPRINT Sustainability Technology Award 2022 – Dr Xing Dai, Fast Photonics, IPIC, Tyndall National Institute
- SPRINT Clinical Impact Award 2022 – Dr Florence Herisson, Functional Food - Synbiotic functional food supplementation to improve key cardiac risk in metabolic syndrome patients, APC Microbiome Ireland
- SPRINT Disruptive Technology Award 2022 – Dr Felipe Murphy-Armando, Ultra-Sensitive Nano Material for Minimal Invasive Surgery, Tyndall National Institute.
- SPRINT Teagasc Innovation Award 2022 – Dr Maria Hayes, Pet Aging Wellness (PAW), Teagasc Moorepark
- SPRINT One to Watch Award 2022 – Dr Vitaly Zubialevich, GAINABLE – Virtual and Augmented Reality Gadgets, IPIC, Tyndall National Institute
- SPRINT Public Welfare Impact Award 2022 – Dr Miguel Fernandez De Ullivarri, Novel Antifungal Peptides for Treatment Candidiasis, APC Microbiome Ireland
SPRINT Accelerator Programme
The SPRINT Programme was developed to help spin-out and start-up companies overcome challenges they may encounter when starting their businesses. On the programme, pre and early stage start-ups work with successful business mentors who help the researchers and founders to bring their business from idea stage through to the eventual commercialisation of the product or service. The SPRINT programme is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Bank of Ireland and Cork City LEO and Cork City Council.
The state-of-the-art incubation programme at GatewayUCC provides a uniquely supportive ecosystem for start-ups through its programme of business supports. Such supports include mentoring and business coaching, access to financial advice and start-up funding, specialist seminars, workshops, introduction to venture-capital opportunities, business angel networks and access to UCC’s network of researchers and academic departments. Office and wet-lab incubation facilities are also available.
SPRINT is currently open for the next round of participants. For further details please contact myriam.cronin@ucc.ie
