The number of people employed in campus incubation companies managed by Ireland’s Institutes of Technology has broken through the 1,000 mark.

On Global Business Incubation Day, 8th December, The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD, launched Campus Incubation Centres – Driving enterprise across Ireland, a booklet of Campus Incubation Case Studies which includes MIRC-based WPA Mobile.

According to The Tánaiste, “Experience has shown that incubators in third level institutions have the potential to generate a seedbed of innovative knowledge-intensive enterprises. As the case studies in this publication show, Enterprise Ireland’s Campus Incubation programme is playing a fundamental role in ensuring that the potential from this seedbed is exploited to the full.”

The Tánaiste urged the Institutes to intensify their efforts to work with companies in regional areas to deliver value for money from the State’s investment in their applied research capabilities.

“Creating 1,000 new jobs is no easy feat, but we must see more of this type of activity. I am calling on every Institute of Technology to ramp-up their activities with local enterprise and to seek out opportunities for collaboration which add value to companies in regional locations” said the Tánaiste.

Feargal Ó Móráin, Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland, said “Regional enterprise is vitally important, now more than ever, and the Institutes of Technology have a unique and critical role to play by delivering new technologies and innovative solutions to companies in their locality.”

The Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan TD and Feargal Ó Móráin, Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland.

Dr Pat Mulhern, Head of Development at AIT, and Oliver Heaney, WPA Mobile.