Science Foundation Ireland is delighted to be supporting Startup Gathering 2015
Science Foundation Ireland is delighted to be supporting the Startup Gathering which takes place across Ireland from today (5th – 10th October) by hosting a number of key events during the week. The Startup Gathering 2015 will see close to 400 events promoting entrepreneurship, innovation and Ireland’s start-up sector taking place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
As part of the Startup Gathering, Science Foundation Ireland is bringing over an inspirational guest speaker from Israel; Ben Lang, co-founder of Mapme, a platform for creating crowdsourced smart and beautiful community maps.
Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland said: “For over a decade Science Foundation Ireland has been investing in world-leading research. This investment is yielding results, not only in our rising global scientific rankings, but also in terms of commercialisation outputs; patents, licencing, start-ups and spin-outs.
“Our involvement in the Startup Gathering is allowing us to bring together researchers we have funded over the last 10 years along with some of the great national and international entrepreneurial minds. It is a great platform to foster and encourage collaborative thinking and networking.”
Ben Lang, co-founder of Mapme, will deliver a keynote address on his journey as a serial entrepreneur at the SFI Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) Pitch Off at the Science Gallery in Dublin today at 5pm. Prior to founding Mapme, Ben served in the technological unit in the Israeli Defence Forces and was previously a growth hacker at VC company, lool ventures.
The SFI Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) Pitch Off, which will be held in association with the DCU Ryan Academy, will see researchers funded under the SFI TIDA programme deliver short accessible pitches in a dynamic competition style format to a panel of judges. The winning pitchers will receive additional support towards their commercialisation endeavours plus an award on the night in recognition of their outstanding performance.
Tickets for the event are free and can be booked at here.
Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres across the country will also host a wide range of events. CONNECT staff will take part in the DublinBIC’s Silicon Stroll event to discuss opportunities for the commercialisation and translation of Internet of Things (IoT) ideas on Tuesday 6th October. Hosted by Lero at its centre at University of Limerick on Thursday 8th October, Start-up Lessons from the Trenches will see Conor Ryan, co-founder and CTO, NVMdurance and Con Sheahan, founder Entellexi /ManOpt Systems, give prospective start-ups the benefit of their hard won lessons through their own personal experiences.
Other SFI Research Centre events see AMBER host Innovation & Communications Hive at the Science Gallery studios today, which will provide one-to-one guidance to navigate the path towards commercial success, while CURAM in Galway host Design your Future – From Young Researcher to Medical Device Entrepreneur to promote entrepreneurship as a career path to researchers at different stages of their career. Details of all these events can be found on the Startup Gathering website.
Prof. Mark Ferguson added: “Science Foundation Ireland is really looking forward to bringing together for the first time, our funded researchers who have founded or co-founded a spinout. Our aim is to bring this top quality group together to share their experiences and to discuss the policies and challenges to the start-up sector in Ireland.”
