Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Goal - To support and foster entrepreneurship and to ensure that the environment is created to improve the level of research, development and innovation undertaken by businesses in County Waterford.

Both the private and public sectors have developed a strong entrepreneurial spirit in County Waterford.  

• Centre of Excellence: Arc Labs, which is operated by WIT at Carriganore is recognised as a national centre of excellence for research, innovation and entrepreneurship.  Arc Labs hosts the Telecommunications Systems and Software Group, has attracted over €55million in research programmes.  The South East Enterprise Platform supports high potential start-ups at the Centre, with the support of Enterprise Ireland.  Plans are advancing to develop research capacity in other sectors including eco-innovation at the site.
  
  
• Network of Community Enterprise Centres: A network of Community Enterprise Centres is being developed in County Waterford.  Centres exist in Tallow, Dunhill, Kilmacthomas and Cappoquin.  New Enterprise Centres are planned for Dungarvan and An Rinn.  This will provide a network of centres for start-up businesses throughout County Waterford which will link to the innovation centre in Carriganore to provide entrepreneurs with a range of property options throughout the County.  
  
   
• Enterprise Supports: A range of supports are available for eligible enterprises from agencies such as Waterford County Enterprise Board, Enterprise Ireland, Waterford LEADER Partnership, Udarás na Gaeltachta and Waterford County VEC.  These supports are succinctly presented in a booklet ‘Starting Your Own Business in County Waterford’.

It is clear that there are excellent supports for business start-up businesses in County Waterford.  This will be improved by implementation of the actions presented in Table 2.1.

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