One of Europe’s oldest incubators, the Liffey Trust, has established a €340,000 scholarship fund for Trinity entrepreneurs studying a master’s in business.
The inaugural €10,000 scholarship – named after the trust’s director, Séamus McDermott – was awarded to John Drumm, the founder of Glencar Healthcare, which specialises in funding Irish healthcare infrastructure.
After the inaugural scholarship for September 2017, the fund will then increase their number of scholarships to four each year for 10 years, awarding a total of €340,000 to Trinity entrepreneurs over the next decade.
In a press release, the Dean of Trinity Business School, Prof Andrew Burke, expressed his delight at the announcement: “People always assume that business start-up is the hardest part of entrepreneurship whereas research has shown that it is the later challenges of survival, growth and professionalisation that pose the greatest challenges for new ventures.”
Burke added that Trinity’s masters in business “is very much more focused on providing solutions for these latter developmental requirements” and that “this scholarship is well placed to support ambitious entrepreneurs”.
Founder and director of the trust, Séamus McDermott said: “Our new partnership with the top university of Ireland and with the academic staff of one of the finest business schools in the world will, we believe, have far reaching and long term benefits for Irish society as a whole.”
The opportunity to win one of the Liffey Trust’s scholarships will act as an additional pull factor for prospective entrepreneurial students coming to Trinity and will aim to preserve Trinity’s growing stature in business, which last year saw Trinity graduates ranked as the most entrepreneurial in Europe by venture capital organisation Pitchbook.
In a press statement, Drumm said he was “delighted” to receive the scholarship. McDermott, he said, is a “fantastic example to all business people”.
