Economic Development __________________________________________________________________________________________________ The DHPLG launched the 2 nd call for the €2 bn Urban Regeneration & Development Fund (URDF) with a closing date of 31 st March. City Council will be making a significant submission for funding under this call with key projects including infrastructure for Docklands and other key projects to support the growth targets of the city as set out in the NPF and recently approved Southern Regional Economic and Spatial Strategy and Municipal Area Strategic Plan for the City region.
A number of initiatives which are supported by the Economic Development Fund took place or were launched:
• The 3 rd Beyond IoT (BIOT) conference hosted by Nimbus in CIT focused on global technology trends and thinking in the AI and smart cities technologies . Another initiative, also supported through the twinning relationship with Shanghai, came to fruition as part of this conference where The Innocare Group innovation hub from Shanghai launched a competition to host Cork company in Shanghai for the first time and who will, through an MoU with CIT, also host the BIoT conference in Shanghai in October this year. They also propose to set up a manufacturing facility in Co rk and also propose to facilitate exchange of companies and R&D project’s between Shanghai and Cork. • The European Business Angel Network (EBAN)annual conference, which is a European based organisation that provide angel funding into the start-up sector across Europe, was launched d by the hosts CorkBIC along with the Deputy Lord Mayor and Chief Executive and will be held in City Hall in June. This prestigious event will be a significant opportunity to showcase Cork’s innovation ecosystem to delegates from all over Europe who operate in this sector. • Sprint , an accelerator programme run by UCC, was launched along with an awards ceremony at UCC Gateway building. This programme supports post doctorate research students through an intensive 12-week mentoring programme to commercialise their high-end research.
The winners of the 3rd call for Regional Enterprise Development Fund were announced by Enterprise Ireland. Two projects from Cork were successful. These are, firstly, a programme to support Benchspace (also supported by City Council), a creative hub working in the wood products sector were awarded €385k. A second project SynBio , a project to support and facilitate the significantly growing biotech start up sector, is being led by UCC and Cork County Council to be hosted in the Health Innovation hub in the proposed Cork Science and Innovation Park, which City Council now have a significant involvement at Curraheen, were awarded over €3m.
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