NovaUCD / University College Dublin

Offers commercialization services at University College Dublin, helping researchers turn ideas into market-ready offerings and spinouts.

NovaUCD is University College Dublin's innovation and tech-transfer hub, operating since 2003 from Belfield Innovation Park in Dublin. It supports high-tech and knowledge-intensive spin-ins and spin-outs through workspace, IP commercialisation, mentoring, and accelerator programming, and the centre says it has helped build a community of more than 600 ventures that have raised over EUR 1.4 billion in equity.

The named routes here are FAST-IP, UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator, NovaUCD AI Ecosystem Accelerator, and the NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition. Direct awards are modest: FAST-IP is a EUR 47,000 scholarship, VentureLaunch carries a EUR 10,000 prize plus EUR 20,000 in services, and the Student Enterprise Competition offers a EUR 3,000 prize.

Applicants that fit NovaUCD best are founders, researchers, students, and industry teams that need translational support rather than a large cash grant. The centre's role is to commercialise UCD-linked ideas and connect teams to Enterprise Ireland, ERDF, EDIH, and private investors once a venture is ready to raise.