Waterford City Region has a global profile, unique heritage and capacity for innovation.

Innovation is the common theme that brings together public, private and academic partners within the Waterford City region and we have one of the most vibrant, structured, cohesive and collaborative innovation ecosystems in the country that supports international and indigenous companies in their innovation journey from inception to maturity to internationalisation. We enable entrepreneurs, micro-enterprises, SMEs and global enterprises to engage with the necessary government and business supports such as funding, business incubators, accelerators, networking, mentoring and other relevant services to help them forge their future success in the region. A focus on commercialisation, with industrial partnerships is at the heart of all we do.

We have the ecosystem in place that is led by innovative-oriented organisations with the sole purpose of increasing and promoting business productivity and global competitiveness, and investment and talent attraction. The innovation ecosystem in the South East is populated with a complete support network including research centres of excellence, industry-led cluster groups, venture capital, tech accelerator, business innovation centres and multiple start-up and co working spaces.

South East Technological University (SETU) is a research-led Institute, recognised for its distinctive, high quality centres of research. WIT is investing in Centres of Excellence and areas of knowledge-intensive industrial development in Waterford, which are driving the region’s global impacts.

SETU’s research expertise in ICT, Advanced Manufacturing and Life Sciences drives innovation and development in these industries in the Waterford City Region. SETU hosts three technology gateways, a €23m investment by the National Enterprise Agency, Enterprise Ireland to create South East Applied Materials (SEAM) Research Centre, Pharmaceutical and Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC), and the TSSG Technology Gateway which is part of the international renowned Telecommunications Software & Systems Group Walton Institute for Information and Communication System Science (formerly TSSG).

In addition, the NDRC@ArcLabs Start-up Accelerator supports the development of new digital enterprises.

ArcLabs

Making Ideas Work
ArcLabs represents an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and innovation. Aisling O' Neill tells us more....
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How we help.
We can provide investment support and advice on doing business in Waterford. We facilitate introductions to economic development agencies, private industry, academia and government.