University College Dublin has appointed Liam Cronin as its first Director of Innovation to drive innovation, entrepreneurship and commercialisation of research outputs within the university.
Mr Cronin will be responsible for managing the strategic direction of the UCD’s activities delivered through NovaUCD in the areas of innovation, knowledge transfer and commercialisation, enterprise development and consultancy.
He was formerly the CEO of the RDI Hub in Killorglin, Co Kerry which opened in 2020. Under his leadership, the RDI Hub has supported about 100 start-ups and scaling companies, which have secured over €250m, created over 430 jobs and launched 70 new products and services.
Over 10,000 people have attended RDI Hub training programmes since 2020.
“UCD has developed a strong track record of success in innovation and entrepreneurship, especially over the last 20 years since the establishment of NovaUCD, and it is a great honour for me to have been appointed to the new role of Director of Innovation at the University,” Mr Conin said.
“I am especially delighted to be joining NovaUCD which earlier this year was recognised by the Financial Times and Statista as one of the leading start-up hubs in Europe, for the second year in a row, and is once again the only university-based start-up hub in Ireland to feature in the Top 150 ranking,” he added.
