CORDIS Archive

Dublin - A region of excellence for innovative start-ups
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Dublin is the capital city of Ireland and is also the commercial and administrative capital of the Irish republic. Dublin and the surrounding region has a population of nearly 1.1 million which counts for nearly one fifth of the entire Irish population with the city population coming close to 500, 000. The city, covering a region of close to 114 km2 is the centre of the tourist industry in Ireland and in 1991 Dublin was voted Europe’s city of culture.

There has been a continuous and stable growth in annual GDP since 1995 with the 2001 level nearing 175.

Dublin is a dynamic city with a strong academic base which operates a continuous learning process from undergraduate to postgraduate and beyond into the business community, where strong links to the city help to drive many business successes. Dublin and its academic and business community have been active in the development of innovation networks on a worldwide basis and it is always looking to facilitate operations in a globalised economy.
Key figures in the promotion of the innovation and start-up industry within Dublin include John Hegarty, the Provost of Dublin University who has in the past, been Dean of research and, John Fitzgerald, the City Manager who is working towards expansion of the City to include university projects in enterprise development.

• TCD – an innovation and enterprise centre, home to 63 businesses
• UCD – an innovation centre that provides courses for entrepreneurs and has links with the Nova project
• DCU – an innovation centre with links to the Invent project
• Dublin city enterprise board
• Dublin Business Innovation centre situated on the TCD site
• Guinness Enterprise centre – centre for enterprise sponsored by the brewers of Guinnes

• WBT Systems – a spin-off from the Computer Science Department that specialises in B2B e-Learning
• Nanomat – a spin-off from the Chemistry Department that develops technologies for the health and life sciences sectors
• Massana – Electronic Engineering spin-off working with broadband communications and high-speed networking

The UCD is planning a new 40 000-sq. ft. innovation centre. The NOVA centre for innovation will be a public private partnership where the private sector will help fund university research in return for equity in any future campus companies that emerge.

TCD – Innovation and Enterprise centre
The TCD innovation and enterprise centre wins 25 – 33% of research funds in Ireland. Researchers based at the centre account for half of all those awarded by the Science Foundation Ireland. This success has been recognised by a massive increase for support in the research carried out at the centre: over the next five years €1 billion will be made available for TCD projects.
The next step forward for TCD will be to link the successful research output to the transfer of technology into start-ups.
Examples of this are already available with incubate companies such as Iona and Eblana. Iona technologies Ltd is a global IT company specialising in middleware. It has a quote on the NASDAQ index and employs in the region of 800 people
Eblana Photonics Ltd is a promising firm situated at the Enterprise Centre. It is involved in the development of laser diodes and is currently in the second round of financing procedures.
Other activities undertaken at TCD include forming valuable relationships with leading companies such as Elan and Hitachi, supporting the licensing of new technologies and holding negotiations with the Irish government

Innovation infrastructure in Ireland
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Within the region there is a significant and well-established support system centred around the start-up community.

The Dublin City Enterprise Board has the responsibility of planning and managing the region's enterprise development. Its mission is to "encourage support and generate economic activity at the small business level in Dublin"and aims to nurture a culture of enterprise awareness and job creation.

Financial backing for new innovative companies includes Enterprise Ireland, a state agency that funds start-up creation and has its headquarters in Dublin. There are also 15 private venture capital organisations operating within the region.

For those research groups, businesses and individual entrepreneurs that are about to enter into a start-up venture, or have recently done so, there is a wealth of training facilities and expertise at their disposal to help them create and manage a successful venture.

As well as an extensive internal infrastructure, Dublin has made fruitful links with innovative cities from Europe, the United States, Japan and Australia. Some of these partnerships have resulted in technology transfers, whereas others, for example in Australia, have resulted in representatives from the UCD innovation centre going to teach innovation management courses.

The North-South Intergovernmental Commerce Agency for the island of Ireland want a formalised policy on innovation that will map out the development of the innovative start-up industry for the next decade. A €150 000 analysis of entrepreneurship support and training will be undertaken by the TCD/UCD and the University of Ulster Regional Development Office.

Over the next decade, innovation administrators in Dublin will seek a greater European influence regarding innovation and start-up practices. It is hoped that this will lead to enlarged market opportunities for companies and will create opportunities to learn new initiatives and acquire new partnerships.

The Dublin Business Innovation Centre (BIC) was established in 1987 with private, public, educational and EU support. It provides advice to new business projects, access to seed capital and access to incubation space (through the Guinness Enterprise Centre) to selected enterprises. Dublin BIC plays a particular role by acting as a facilitator to the entrepreneur in finding practical solutions to problems in a responsive, non-bureaucratic way. These activities complement the assistance and services provided by the State agencies and the private sector. Since inception Dublin BIC has assisted 316 start-up enterprises to date (January 2004).