GatewayUCC, which is part of UCC Innovation, said the companies it has worked with and supported since 2012 have created more than 400 jobs.
GatewayUCC supports researcher-led start-ups and spin out companies.
Over the past eight years, GatewayUCC supported companies have raised over €50m of public and private investment, and supported over 60 start-ups and pre startups based on Intellectual property from the university.
These IP based companies have contributed more than €22m a year in salaries to the local economy.
GatewayUCC also reported a significant growth in the number of female founders within the programme this year.
GatewayUCC this week announced the winners of its fifth GatewayUCC SPRINT Awards for 2021.
SPRINT is designed to support early stage start-ups working on technologies generated in UCC by UCC researchers and entrepreneurs.
This year will see 20 researcher-led projects sign up for the SPRINT programme which is an increase of 50% from last year. 40% of that cohort are women, which represents the largest intake of female founders in the programme's history.
The winners of the 2021 Gateway UCC Sprint Awards are:
SPRINT Clinical Impact Award: Eric Moore - Smart Probe
SPRINT Emerging Technology Award: Ken Nally and Ciaran Lee - ProtectBiotics
SPRINT Investor Ready Award: Sana Konugolu - BiopixS
SPRINT Sustainability Technology Award: Andrey Tiuftin - Biocoat/Sustaincoat
The head of GatewayUCC and the SPRINT Programme, Myriam Cronin, said the businesses and researchers supported by GatewayUCC have continued to innovate and evolve over the past 12 months.
She said they have flourished given the challenges posed by the global pandemic.
"SPRINT continues to grow year on year, with the biggest intake so far for 2021, providing a steady pipeline of technology start ups from the University that will create growth opportunities in the future," Ms Cronin added.
