Gateway UCC has announced that the University College Cork (UCC) start-up and spin-out companies supported since 2012 have created more than 450 jobs.

The 70 firms based on intellectual property from the university that Gateway UCC has supported in that time have raised in excess of €50m in public and private investment. The companies have also contributed €25m per year in salaries to the local economy.

Gateway UCC also announced the winners of its sixth SPRINT Awards for companies working on technologies generated in UCC by researchers and entrepreneurs in its SPRINT accelerator programme, with 40% of participants having female founders -- the largest such intake in programme history.

Pre- and early-stage start-ups work with business mentors who help researchers and founders to bring their ideas to market as part of the programme, which also provides access to financial advice and funding, specialist seminars, workshops, venture capital opportunities, business angel networks and access to UCC researchers and academic departments as well as office and wet-lab incubation facilities.

The winners were:

In Association with

• SPRINT Investor Ready Award 2022 – Prof Deirdre Murray, Mike Cunneen, Liltoda Ltd, INFANT
• SPRINT Sustainability Technology Award 2022 – Dr Xing Dai, Fast Photonics, IPIC, Tyndall National Institute
• SPRINT Clinical Impact Award 2022 – Dr Florence Herisson, Functional Food - Synbiotic functional food supplementation to improve key cardiac risk in metabolic syndrome patients, APC Microbiome Ireland 
• SPRINT Disruptive Technology Award 2022 – Dr Felipe Murphy-Armando, Ultra-Sensitive Nano Material for Minimal Invasive Surgery, Tyndall National Institute.
• SPRINT Teagasc Innovation Award 2022 – Dr Maria Hayes, Pet Aging Wellness (PAW), Teagasc Moorepark
• SPRINT One to Watch Award 2022 – Dr Vitaly Zubialevich, GAINABLE – Virtual and Augmented Reality Gadgets, IPIC, Tyndall National Institute
• SPRINT Public Welfare Impact Award 2022 – Dr Miguel Fernandez De Ullivarri, Novel Antifungal Peptides for Treatment Candidiasis, APC Microbiome Ireland  

"We are delighted to return to in-person awards on campus this year to celebrate the wonderful work of UCC researchers that is being supported in the SPRINT programme," GatewayICC and SPRINT director Myriam Cronin said.

"With the 2022 new intake of researchers, this brings to 80 participants to date through the programme, all looking to start technology based new ventures."

Enterprise Ireland CEO Leo Clancy, the keynote speaker at the event, said: "Enterprise Ireland works closely with emerging companies to ensure they can access global markets, attract investment and talent, to create jobs and scale quickly. Increasing high potential start-ups from the third level sector is a key focus in EI's strategy and we are delighted to support the SPRINT Programme which identifies and supports exciting leading-edge technologies being developed in UCC."

Gateway UCC, jointly funded by UCC and Enterprise Ireland, operates out of the purpose-built incubation centre and comprises of 21 own-door business units, including the likes of Luxcel Biosciences, PrecisionBiotics and Food Choice at Work and former home to Metabolomic Diagnostics.Recently exited AltraTech Ltd and SteamEd Ltd.

Photo: Myriam Cronin, head of GatewayUCC and director of the SPRINT Accelerator Programme