School safety and clinical trials among the winners at UCC IGNITE awards

14 entrepreneurs took the stage at UCC to pitch the future of Irish tech

Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Mary McDonnell with winners-Best Business David Hall, Carbery Cognimed, Best Business Plan, Ruth Hendrick, Target Alert Group and Best Pitch Eliana Monteiro, LoveBetter at the UCC IGNITE Programme spring showcase and awards. Photo. Darragh Kane

Technology to improve how schools operate incident management and alerts, an AI-powered system to speed up clinical trial agreements, and a platform to help people overcome challenges in their relationships were among the start-ups highlighted at this year’s UCC IGNITE Awards.

The awards offer start-ups a chance to talk about their technology in front of a live audience of local businesses and investors. A total of 14 start-ups, who are at different stages of the programme, pitched their idea.

IGNITE is open to anyone who has graduated from any third-level institution and has the ambition to work on an idea that has the potential for economic, environmental or social impact.

Winners on the night were:

Best Business: Carbery CogniMed (David Hall) 

Best Pitch: Love Better (Dr. Eliana da Silva Monteiro) 

Best Business Plan: Target Alert Group (TAG) (Ruth Hendrick)

Carbery CogniMed is a solution aimed at accelerating clinical trials by improving data flow, reducing administrative bottlenecks, and speeding up access to treatments. Love Better is a relationship help platform that allows people to explain challenges in their relationships and receive support in working through them. Target Alert Group (TAG) is a system for schools designed to support incident management, alerts, and speed up incident reaction time. It also helps schools track training, medications and expiry dates.

Eamon Curtin, Director of IGNITE, said: “We at IGNITE are proud to work with these talented people who have come up with really innovative ideas that can be developed into a business with the potential to deliver real social and economic value. At IGNITE, we help them to transform their idea into a business by going through each of the steps including pitching to investors. None of this would be possible without the backing of the Local Enterprise Offices, Cork County Council, Cork City Council and Bank of Ireland, and I would like to thank them for their continued support.”