With the support of the EU, the Business Development Centre (BDC) at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) in Ireland has been extended to form a state-of-the-art incubation, research and enterprise centre named CoLab.
- 19 August 2011
Colab is an ideal and important location for the EpiCentre, which operates as a technology and innovation centre for the North West region. CoLab helps to create business opportunities and links because it attracts and houses many of the new indigenous technology start-ups from the region.
Projects such as this are helping the EU to become a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy by 2020, as set out in the EU 2020 growth strategy. The EU is facing some tough challenges, including an ageing population, an insufficiently qualified workforce, the need for greater innovation, striking a balance between economic growth and environmental degradation, and ensuring secure, clean energy supplies. Regional policy projects across the EU are playing an active role in dealing with these and many other challenges, by undertaking projects designed to generate employment, raise educational achievement, develop renewable energy sources, boost productivity and give all citizens access to opportunities. The projects and the regions play a pivotal role in this, as they generate real results that contribute to achieving the strategy’s key goals.
CoLab, which comprises 23 business centres spread over 2 500 m2, provides campus-based incubation facilities to start-up companies and also some facilities for industrial research, all with the aim of supporting entrepreneurs at every stage of their business development.
Expanding to meet a growing demand
The Business Development Centre at Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) already housed nine start-up units since 2000. However in recent years demand for the facility began to seriously outweigh its capacity, leading to the need for an extension.
The aims of the expansion were: to increase the incubation space for new start-up enterprises; to improve the services and infrastructure; to provide commercial and applied R&D space and services and to offer networking opportunities for resident companies.
A centre with the highest standard of infrastructural support
The expanded facility, renamed CoLab, supports 22 businesses and over 58 employees in total. Over 70% of the businesses who now enjoy the support of the centre are exporting their goods or services.
CoLab’s 23 business units range from 12.5 m2 to 100 m2 and its modern incubation, research and enterprise facilities have been equipped to provide the highest standard of wireless broadband, real time video conferencing services and more.
The centre also provides entrepreneurial training through its CEIM enterprise development programme, a business start-up programme offered by LYIT and IT-Sligo in collaboration with Enterprise Ireland and Údarás na Gaeltachta.
Gerry Burke of Synergy Flow says, “The expansion of the CoLab at LYIT has produced an attractive location which I have no hesitation in recommending to the business community. The greater range of companies, activities and services has enhanced the value of CoLab as a business location, especially for early stage start-ups.”