MTU nominated for two awards for dedication to entrepreneurship

Munster Technological University (MTU) has been nominated for two awards for its dedication to entrepreneurship.

The nominations come as part of the Triple E Awards.

The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts towards the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education.

It is the first set of awards to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities’ third mission.

The Triple E Awards aim to foster change in universities and to emphasise their role in their communities and ecosystems.

These awards are organised in four regions around the world (Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific). This year, the award ceremonies will be hosted in Sao Paulo (Americas awards), Lisbon (European and African awards) and Kuala Lumpur (Asia-Pacific awards).

MTU has been shortlisted in two categories: The team-level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Activators of the Year and the initiative-level EDI Community Engagement Initiative of the Year within the European category.

The combined success of four different initiatives earned MTU its nomination in the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Activators of the Year category.

The Innovative Product Design Initiative, the Student Inc Entrepreneurship Programme, the Innovation Challenge, and the MTU Prize for Innovation all helped MTU to make the shortlist for the awards.

These four elements have been developed at MTU to ensure that they are complementary to each other, such that each of them focuses on a different aspect of educational entrepreneurship and engagement.

More than 5,000 people have benefited from the programmes over the last two decades.

The course coordinator for biomedical engineering in MTU, lecturer Hugh O’Donnell, said: “For many years, our team has provided a range of interlinked opportunities for students at all academic levels to express their creativity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurial talents.

“We are delighted that the team has been recognised by being shortlisted for the Triple-E award category: Innovation and Entrepreneurship Activators of the Year.”

MTU received its nomination in the EDI Community Engagement Initiative of the Year for its leadership in fostering youth entrepreneurship in rural and urban community initiatives, while increasing access to such initiatives for young people.

The university demonstrated this through its MTU Enterprise Camp and Goalmine programmes.

Both camps are free to attend and particularly encourage student participation from primary- and secondary-level students in regional and lower socioeconomic areas.

These programmes demonstrate outstanding community engagement, directly impacting over 1,600 individuals since 2012.

Rebecca Robinson, a researcher at the MTU Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence, said: “Having delivered the MTU Bishopstown Entrepreneurship Summer Schools programme for the past four years, it is incredibly rewarding to see the dedication of our team and the programme’s positive impact ... acknowledged through the Triple E Awards nomination.”

In 2023, MTU was named as a finalist of the Engaged University of the Year Award — earning fourth place.

The university was beaten by category winners Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios Uniminuto, Colombia.

Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium, and University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, US, earned second and third place in the Engaged University of the Year category.

Awardees are selected through a two-stage process.

After the shortlisting of the top five entries in each category in each region, additional information needs to be submitted which will serve as the basis for the final ranking of the entries and the selecting of the category winner.