IGNITE Your Idea
7th February 2024
The IGNITE programme at UCC, which helps start-ups to progress to the next level, is accepting new applications for the next start-up incubation programme starting in April 2024.
The programme is open to anyone who has graduated from a third level institution in recent years and has the passion and ambition to work on an idea that has the potential for economic, environmental, or social impact.
Over the years, the programme has supported recent graduates returning to Ireland from foreign travels, international students interested in staying in Ireland to develop their start-up and late stage Masters or PhD students working on a start-up idea.
The IGNITE programme has worked with 170 start-ups over the last 12 years and these companies have created more than 370 jobs.
IGNITE Director Eamon Curtin said; “We are extremely proud of all our graduates who have demonstrated determination and commitment to their start-up idea and have worked extremely hard to turn it into a commercial reality. IGNITE offers several valuable resources to help them on their journey including seminars, workshops, guest speakers, mentoring, fundraising and a workspace to help grow their business idea. We have seen some really exciting businesses come out of the programme and we are looking forward to working with the next group of participants.”
Shannen O’Reilly completed the IGNITE programme in Autumn 2023. She is the co-founder of TrustDish which is an allergen management system for people dining out. Talking about the IGNITE programme she said; “I had this idea for a company but I really didn’t know how to transform it from an idea into a reality so I joined the IGNITE programme and it really guided me in the right direction. One of the big things I got from the programme was they helped me to find a suitable app developer which would have taken months of research if we were to do it alone.
IGNITE gave me the confidence to turn an idea into a product that will hopefully save lives.”
IGNITE is supported by University College Cork, Bank of Ireland, the Local Enterprise Offices of Cork City, South Cork and North and West Cork, Cork City Council and Cork County Council.
Applications close on Monday, February 26th 2024 and people can apply on ignite.ucc.ie
Pictured (l-r): Shannen O’Reilly, IGNITE Alumni and co-founder of TrustDish with Kevin O’Regan, Chief Operational Manager of TrustDish and Professor John O’Halloran, UCC President. (Image: Joleen Cronin).
