TechInnovate

Enabling technology innovators and innovations

[techinnovate]

Free Places from NUI Galway on its Entrepreneurship Development Course

New course teaches homemakers, the unemployed and the formerly self-employed how to create innovation-driven enterprises

NUI Galway, in collaboration with 14 company partners, is offering places on its new entrepreneurial skills development programme, the Postgraduate Diploma in TechInnovation (Entrepreneurship Development). This programme was recently established by serial entrepreneur and NUI Galway academic Dr John Breslin.

NUI Galway has designed this one-year part-time programme in conjunction with leading employers and local startups, to enable graduates to develop the necessary skills for company creation.

Student fees for the course are funded by the Higher Education Authority’s Springboard+ initiative, given the strategic importance of developing skills in the area of enterprise/entrepreneurship. Successful applicants will therefore, pay no fees.

The overall goal of this postgraduate programme is to strategically increase the level of disciplined entrepreneurship skills in both small and large companies. It will provide graduates with the process know-how on how to create a company or how to create a new business unit within an existing company, with a particular focus on innovation-driven enterprises that can scale up. A short experiential placement will also be facilitated with partner companies.

Dr John Breslin, Course Director, said: “This is a free course leading to a qualification in an area of significant importance to the Irish economy: enterprise and entrepreneurship. The aim of this programme is to teach homemakers, the unemployed or formerly self-employed how to create innovation-driven enterprises. The programme is suited to those who may want to use their entrepreneurial skills in larger organisations, where the same processes can be applied with some minor modifications in what is called `intrapreneurship’.”

Dr Breslin added: “The course includes working through issues of market analysis, technology viability assessment, competitive positioning, team building, product lifecycle planning, marketing strategy, sales channel analysis, and with a strong emphasis on the entrepreneur/intrapreneur as a salesperson. Business plans will be developed to include an executive summary, vision and values, market analysis/segmentation and competition, a product and manufacturing plan, a sales plan, a financial plan, and a marketing plan.”

Dr Breslin was selected for MIT’s prestigious Entrepreneurship Development Program in early 2017, an intensive executive education program designed for CEOs, academics and government leaders who want to develop entrepreneurial skills within their organisations or regions. The successful "Disciplined Entrepreneurship" 24-step process from MIT was therefore chosen as the basis for this Springboard+ programme.

Applicants should hold an undergraduate degree, 1st or 2nd class honours in any discipline, along with three years of relevant industrial experience; or an Ordinary or 3rd class honours undergraduate degree, along with five years of relevant industrial experience; or a recognised professional qualification and five years of relevant industrial experience. Candidates who do not meet the minimum entry criteria may be interviewed to ascertain their suitability for the programme. Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) can be considered for entry purposes.

NUI Galway is now processing applications and those interested can make their application through https://springboardcourses.ie/details/5225. The deadline for final applications is Monday, 7th August.

For further information contact the Programme Director, Dr John Breslin, at [email protected]

[techinnovate]

New Entrepreneurship Programme to Target Agriculture and Defence

First TechInnovate Fellows announced by NUI Galway

Teams will develop innovative technology solutions for pressing needs

“Through the immersion phase, the Fellows get direct experience of the needs of a farmer or soldier in the field”

Dr John Breslin

Innovations in technology for the agricultural and defence sectors are being explored by the newly announced TechInnovate Fellows at NUI Galway. The names of the entrepreneurial individuals who have been accepted onto the Fellowship Programme have been released.

Taking cues from the successful BioInnovate programme for the medtech sector, TechInnovate’s aim is to enable technology innovators and innovations in new sectors, initially agriculture and defence.

The first cohort of six Fellows have been split into two teams, who will immerse themselves within the sectors. Over the course of the 10-month programme, the Fellowship teams will carry out a thorough needs analysis with end users, identify a pressing technological need, and then develop a solution.

The programme is being led by NUI Galway academic Dr John Breslin, who is himself an entrepreneur as co-founder of boards.ie, adverts.ie, and more recently the start-up hub PorterShed. Dr Breslin says: “Understand your users, that’s the key’ is a saying from serial entrepreneur and investor, Paul Graham. It captures the essence of what this programme is about, because through the immersion phase, the Fellows get direct experience of the needs of a farmer or soldier in the field. They then go on to filter and prioritise these needs and develop a solution wherein the key market opportunity lies.”

Each team consists of an interdisciplinary grouping of engineer, businessperson and designer. All members are industry professionals with extensive expertise from different sectors.

The defence team is made up of Ronan Boyle, an electronic engineer with significant industry experience in the medical devices industry, Greg Payne, with expertise in financial services, compliance and sales with a background in sports science, and Leon Butler, an accomplished visual narrative designer who recently completed a residency in LA.

On the agriculture team are Niamh Lynch, an expert in quality and risk management for the medtech and pharma industries, Ciara Shields, a results-focused marketing and international business development executive with a passion for startups, and Paul Flynn, design thinking and learning environments specialist with an education and engineering background.

Dr John Breslin explains the origins of TechInnovate: “The impetus for the development of this Fellowship Programme emerged from the Government’s Innovation Taskforce Report. It made recommendations on how to embed product design teaching and research in Ireland’s engineering schools and how to shift design education in Ireland to a model where creativity and innovation in product design are encouraged. The BioInnovate Ireland Fellowship Programme was created as a result of these recommendations, which in turn inspired the development of TechInnovate.”

TechInnovate also has an experienced team of advisors with entrepreneurial and investment backgrounds, including: Gerard Barry, Galway-based investor and entrepreneur, founder of Privity Pay and formerly Fintrax; Patrick Dawson, investor and adtech entrepreneur (ex-MediaMath, Adobe) who has built businesses in Asia, Europe and the US; Dr Helen McBreen, Investment Director with Atlantic Bridge Ventures and formerly of NDRC and Celtrak; Barry O’Sullivan, Silicon Valley-based investor, entrepreneur, CEO of Altocloud, former SVP at Cisco, and dragon on RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den; and Dr Gareth Keane, Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures in California.

The programme is supported by NUI Galway and the Galway University Foundation, and is sponsored by Bank of Ireland and the Western Development Commission. A Continuing Professional Development series of workshops in the TechInnovate process is also being offered to supporting companies, and new sectors and immersion opportunities for teams are also being sought for future years.

[techinnovate]

TechInnovate Holds Open Evening on “Intrapreneurship” Training for West of Ireland Corporates

TechInnovate, the entrepreneurship initiative from NUI Galway, is hosting an open evening on November 22nd at partner Bank of Ireland’s startlab location on Eyre Square for local corporates who are interested in openings on the team-based “intrapreneurship” training programme for industry. Intrapreneurship is the application of entrepreneurship and innovation principles within larger companies and corporates.

At the open evening, attendees can find out more about the TechInnovate Intrapreneurship Training programme for industry, commencing January 2017. The event will be led by TechInnovate director Dr John Breslin and Bank of Ireland startlab’s Tracy Keogh, along with NUI Galway’s current cohort of TechInnovate entrepreneurial Fellows who will be mentoring industry participants through a series of hands-on workshops delivered over 20 weeks.

“As proud sponsors of TechInnovate, Bank of Ireland are delighted to host this evening on November 22nd at 7 PM in startlab, Eyre Square,” said Tracy Keogh. “TechInnovate’s big hairy audacious goal, or BHAG, is to have many more skilled entrepreneurs in startups and intrapreneurs in corporates in the West of Ireland. This event will give attendees the chance to hear from current Fellows of the programme and opportunities for openings in the industry programme beginning in January.”

“We have more people founding and interested in founding startups here than ever before. The spirit of entrepreneurship is particularly strong right now,” said John Breslin. “However, in parallel, there is a need for more initiatives that are developing innovation skills for companies, to give structures and processes to those who want to set up innovation-driven enterprises or innovative projects and products within existing corporates.”

TechInnovate follows a “disciplined intrapreneurship” team-based approach, working through topics including needs finding, market analysis, technology viability assessment, competitive positioning, interdisciplinary team building, product life-cycle planning, marketing strategy, sales channel analysis, and with a strong emphasis on the entrepreneur/intrapreneur as a salesperson.

Ian McMorrough, director at Bank of Ireland, said: "Bank of Ireland are thrilled to host the upcoming TechInnovate open evening, we need more people thinking entrepreneurially and intrapreneurially, and TechInnovate will provide an injection of these people into the tech ecosystem in the region."

The TechInnovate training workshops have been developed to address the growing demand for innovation training in the sector and are delivered by a combination of TechInnovate Fellows, academics, domain and industry experts. These workshops afford participants the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary teams to progress an unmet domain need through the TechInnovate process to a product plan for a technology innovation.

Attend the TechInnovate Industry Open Day to find out more by registering at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/techinnovate-industry-open-day-tickets-29051228005

[techinnovate]

Galway Marine Innovation Map

[techinnovate]

NUI Galway Launches Unique TechInnovate Fellowship with Support from Bank of Ireland

Bank of Ireland has been announced as a sponsor of TechInnovate, a new technology entrepreneurship fellowship at NUI Galway. TechInnovate is a unique specialised technology innovation programme at the University, where teams identify real needs in a certain domain and invent/implement solutions. The programme is a 10 month full-time stipend-supported fellowship.

The full-time programme combines teams of high-calibre Fellows from either an engineering, business or design graduate background that aims to align unmet domain needs with a market opportunity. Team members are chosen to contribute their skills, knowledge and expertise as part of a multidisciplinary Fellowship team.

Now recruiting, TechInnovate’s focus is on enabling technology innovators and innovations, by producing more technology entrepreneurs in local startups, as well as more intrapreneurs in established technology companies in the West of Ireland. High-calibre Fellows are recruited to form 2-3 person interdisciplinary teams and participate in an intensive 10-month programme that goes from concept to product.

The programme has been inspired by BioInnovate, a successful medical device technology fellowship that is modelled on the prestigious and internationally-recognised Stanford BioDesign programme.

In parallel to the fellowship programme, the second aspect of TechInnovate involves a series of ten day-long industry training workshops that are offered to industry partners, and that mirrors the TechInnovation process undergone by the full-time Fellows. The aim of this stream is to instil intrapreneurial thinking among staff from participating corporates.

Tracy Keogh, Galway Community Manager at Bank of Ireland, said: “Support for the technology community is one of Bank of Ireland's pillar activities, and we've implemented a number of successful initiatives around this in Galway. We're delighted to invest further in the creation and growth of tech startups in this thriving community.”

Dr John Breslin, director of TechInnovate, and senior lecturer at NUI Galway, said: “In the West of Ireland, we need more people thinking entrepreneurially and intrapreneurially, and TechInnovate will provide an injection of these people into the tech ecosystem in the region.”

TechInnovate is a joint initiative from the College of Engineering and Informatics and the College of Business, Public Policy and Law at NUI Galway, and is supported by Bank of Ireland, Blackstone LaunchPad at NUI Galway, the Galway University Foundation, NUI Galway, and the Western Development Commission.

Interested fellowship candidates can apply for the TechInnovate fellowship at www.techinnovate.org before 8th April 2016. Candidates in the areas of engineering, information technology, design, law, and business must have completed an undergraduate degree in their area and should hold a postgraduate qualification or have equivalent professional experience.

[techinnovate]

What is TechInnovate?

TechInnovate is a unique team-based technology innovation programme at NUI Galway, where teams identify real needs in a certain domain and invent/implement solutions. The programme is a 10 month full-time stipend-supported fellowship.

This elite stipend-supported tax-free fellowship has been established to inspire and train the next generation of techpreneurs (entrepreneurial technologists), forming new companies and strengthening existing ones.

High-calibre Fellows are recruited to form 2-3 person interdisciplinary teams and participate in an intensive 10-month programme that goes from concept to product.