UCD Team Wins an Ideate Ireland Business Competition Award

MetHealth, an emerging UCD start-up supported through NovaUCD, has been announced as an award winner at the 2022 IDEATE Ireland business competition, during an event held recently in the US Ambassador’s residence.

MetHealth, which received the third placed award, is developing a biomarker-based risk-stratification platform and associated digital health solution that can identify patients with complications of obesity, including heart disease and liver disease, that impacts clinical decision making and enhances delivery of personalised care for the individual.

MetHealth is an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund project awarded to Conway Fellow, Dr Fiona McGillicuddy. The members of the MetHealth team are Dr Fiona McGillicuddy and Professor Stephen Pennington, UCD School of Medicine and UCD Conway Institute; Associate Professor Catherine Mooney, UCD School of Computer Science, Dr Rachel Byrne, UCD School of Medicine and UCD Conway Institute, Dr Anna Antoniadi, UCD School of Computer Science and Aleksandra Dudzik, UCD School of Medicine.

Pictured at US Ambassador’s residence in Dublin are MetHealth team members, Dr Fiona McGillicuddy and Dr Rachel Byrne, UCD School of Medicine.

The IDEATE Ireland business plan competition is committed to enhancing cooperation, connection and mutual understanding on the island of Ireland, engaging with all communities and traditions around a shared passion for entrepreneurship and new venture development. IDEATE Ireland seeks to uncover and empower Ireland’s next generation of entrepreneurs, helping to turn their brilliant ideas into thriving international businesses. The ten best submissions participated in a ten-week mentoring and support programme.

Claire D. Cronin, US Ambassador to Ireland, said, “I am delighted to celebrate entrepreneurship and innovation from third-level institutions across Ireland. Ireland’s start-up ecosystem has a reputation for being diverse and welcoming with an excellent network of supports, incubators, and accelerators that provide mentoring to early-stage companies. The U.S. Embassy looks forward to supporting the IDEATE Ireland awardees with their global ambition and expansion into the United States through our SelectUSA programme.”

Conway Fellow, Dr Fiona McGillicuddy said, “We are absolutely honoured to have placed third in the Ideate Ireland Competition with our MetHealth project. We really enjoyed the programme and are very thankful to Helen and her team for selecting MetHealth to participate.”

Co-founder of IDEATE Ireland, Helen Fullen said, “The standard of submissions was exceptionally high. We were particularly pleased to note a significant number of female led applications (43%) and growing number originating from Northern Ireland (26%).”

She added, “We also had excellent support from the academic institutions across the country; this year’s cohort came from the CeADAR Research Centre, INFANT Research Centre, National University of Ireland Galway, NovaUCD, Queen’s University Belfast, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, and University of Limerick. Congratulations to all of our finalists and winners. We look forward to continuing to support them on the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey and are proud to add them to our impressive alumni group.”

Material from Miceal Whelan, NovaUCD