Colleges join forces to help business start-ups

TCD provost Dr John Hegarty, chief executive of alternative energy firm G24 Innovations John Hartnett and UCD president Dr Hugh Brady at the signing of the Innovation Alliance at Trinity College yesterday.
Photograph: Eric Luke

CAROLINE MADDEN

TRINITY COLLEGE Dublin (TCD) and UCD have formed a new partnership with a group of Silicon Valley-based technology experts in a bid to boost the number of “spin-out” companies from the two universities. This will be achieved through a combination of mentoring and venture capital investment.

The partnership between the Innovation Alliance – a joint TCD/UCD research initiative – and the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ILTG) aims to create a Silicon Valley-like environment that will facilitate not just the commercialisation of research, but the creation of technology companies and jobs.

Under the terms of a collaborative agreement signed yesterday with the Innovation Alliance, the ITLG, a group of senior Irish and Irish-American technology executives, is to create a venture capital fund that will invest in companies started by research students.

ITLG members will also mentor researchers and young entrepreneurs, and will use their Silicon Valley connections to help “open doors” for start-up companies.

“We certainly feel that in today’s environment . . . the success of the future is lying within the walls of our universities, in terms of research, in terms of people,” John Harnett, founder of the ITLG, said yesterday.

However, Mr Harnett said that it was “too early to tell at this stage” how much venture capital funding will be made available.

“Everybody looks to Silicon Valley, it’s a great success, but it’s been in the making for about 60 years. We can’t wait that long,” commented TCD provost Dr John Hegarty yesterday.

“There’s no magic to Silicon Valley,” said Richard Morton, ITLG board member. “It’s just a lot of big ideas, a lot of risk-takers and a lot of people who are focused on execution and I think that’s what this partnership can do as well.”