Cork’s rise as an entrepreneurial hub has been further boosted with the opening of Blackstone LaunchPad at UCC, one of only three locations in Ireland to host the entrepreneurship programme.

According to Peter Finnegan, the newly-appointed director of Blackstone LaunchPad at UCC, this is an important development not just for UCC, but for Cork and the wider region in general.

“Cork’s reputation as a great place to establish and build an enterprise has been copper-fastened by the fact that Cork has been chosen as the first ever European city to host the Startup Nations Summit in November this year,” Mr Finnegan commented.

Hundreds of start-up policy makers, advisers, and public and private sector organisations from across the globe are expected to come to the city from November 18 to 20, set to generate international attention for Ireland’s successful creation of a strong supportive ecosystem for entrepreneurship.

Located in the Creative Zone of UCC’s Boole Library, the Blackstone LaunchPad programme is open to UCC students, alumni, staff and faculty, offering coaching, ideation and venture creation support free of charge.

Blackstone LaunchPad at UCC brings entrepreneurship in to the full view of students from the day they enter the university and will be a resource that they can avail of long after they leave UCC’s environs.