Minister Martin Announces GMIT Business Incubation Centre in Galway

Total funding for GMIT of €5 million

Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin T.D today (Friday 13^th January 2006) opened new business incubation centre at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology’s Galway Campus. The Government, through Enterprise Ireland has invested over €3.8m in the new “Innovation in Business Centres”, €2.5m of which is at the Galway centre. Minister Martin opened a similar facility Castlebar campus yesterday. Together the new “Innovation in Business Centres” have joint capacity for over 26 business units and will support the incubation and development of new campus enterprises. They will also provide capacity for the commercialisation of applied research on behalf of SMEs.

Commenting at the openings the Minister said, “Incubation space is an essential complement to the very significant public investment in scientific research in Ireland as it helps maximise the commercial potential of scientific research. Incubation space provides an essential transitional space between the research and business worlds, in which the commercial potential of the scientific research undertaken in our third level institutions can be maximised.”

“Incubation space provides a physical space in which to house and promote entrepreneurship and can greatly improve the survival and growth prospects of start-up campus companies. GMIT’s two new “Innovation in Business Centres” will play a key strategic role in the development of the region,” the Minister said.

Enterprise Ireland also provided funding to support the employment of centre managers in both locations. This funding was provided under the National Development Plan, 2000-2006 and part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

To date Enterprise Ireland has approved 19 Incubation Centres, 16 of which are in Institutes of Technology or equivalent third level colleges and 3 in Universities (DCU Invent Centre, UCD Nova Centre and NUI Galway). Enterprise Ireland has also supported 6 specialist Bio-incubation facilities on University campuses. Total investment in campus business incubation activity (Centres in Institutes of Technology, Universities and Bio- incubation) is over €46 million.

Commenting on the openings Colm Hackett, Head of Regions and Entrepreneurship of Enterprise Ireland said “Incubators in third level institutions throughout Ireland can generate a seedbed of innovative knowledge intensive enterprises, with the potential to grow rapidly, export internationally and provide sustainable high value employment in their home location.”

At GMIT Galway, Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin T.D also announced the success of GMIT in its application to Enterprise Ireland’s Applied Research Enhancement fund. GMIT’s proposal to establish “GMEDTECH” the Galway Medical Devices Centre of Excellence was one of the five successful applicants to the fund, winning funding in excess of €1.2m, following a competitive evaluation process in the latter half of 2005. The centre will offer the regionally and nationally based medical device development industry an advanced product performance testing service. GMEDTECH will actively engage with medical device development companies, identify their product test needs, and develop specialised test capabilities to meet these needs.

Announcing the approval of GMEDTECH Minister Micheál Martin T.D said:

“This is a very significant development not just for GMIT but also for the West region. With support from Enterprise Ireland, GMIT will be to the forefront in helping Irish owned companies design and develop new medical devices and technology thereby enhancing the impact of the cluster of medical device companies which is one of the major strengths of the region.”

ENDS

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