Ireland’s South-West has a thriving tech and tech enabled business community, significant support networks and an abundance of assets spanning the entire region, resulting in a vibrant and innovative ecosystem.
If you’re not sure where to start or how to plug into our rich and diverse community, start with us. Join our Tech Industry Alliance, where we will help you connect, collaborate and grow alongside members and others who have made the same journey as you!
If you are a company or individual moving to the region, check out all the great reasons to make the South-West your home. And let us be the sign-post to our collaborators and alliances which include many great organisations, agencies and membership organisations that contribute to our rich and diverse community.
Our cluster of companies in tech producing and tech enabled businesses cover a wide area, – not just geographically but also in terms of their sectors and stages of development. From start-up, scale-up, SME right through to large multinational companies in diverse industries spanning: Technology; Engineering, MedTech; BioPharma; International Financial Services; Content, Consumer & Business Service and lots more, there’s some exciting stuff happening throughout the region. And it is easy to see why the South-West has developed into a flagship location of choice for companies and the talented people choosing to work here.
A population of approximately 690,575 people which continues to grow in diversity with Non-Irish nationalities accounting for over 12% of Cork’s population and 14% of Kerry’s population.
The pleasure of urban living with Cork city being Ireland’s second largest city as well as thriving regional towns, smaller towns and villages, vibrant Island and Gaeltacht communities, resulting in a lively social scene and laid back lifestyle. In fact, many say that the quality of life, safe environment and high disposable incomes are why they chose to call the South-West ‘home’.
We are very proud of our highly educated workforce – with more than 41,000 students currently in higher education in the region.
At University College Cork (‘UCC’), which is ranked in the top 1.1% of universities globally, there are over 23,000 students.
Munster Technological University has over 18,000 students with 6 campuses across Cork and Kerry
Our business ecosystem is bolstered by a number of centre of excellence and a plethora of research centres including the Nimbus Research Centre – Ireland’s largest dedicated Internet of Things Centre, the Tyndall National Institute, Science Foundation Ireland (‘SFI’)funded centres such as APC Microbiome, the Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC), Insight Centre for Data Analytics, MaREI and lots more across the region.
We are lucky that in every corner of our region is an enterprise and innovation hub, which are supporting our thriving start-up, scale-up, SME and MNC second-sites in locations throughout Cork and Kerry. As a start-up you don’t have to travel far for accelerator and entrepreneurship programmes such as the NDRC or New Frontiers at Republic Of Work, RDI Hub, Ludgate, Tom Crean Centre, Rubicon, Dingle Creativity and Innovation Hub and more.
Remote and hybrid workers can choose to work in some of the most creative, innovative and beautiful spaces in Ireland – just check out our ever growing list of hubs dotted around every corner of our region.
The South-West’s cluster community continues to be enable and drive enterprise capability to support and to forge greater linkages and collaborations amongst the vast indigenous and foreign owned enterprises across the region, and beyond.
International reach: Cork Airport has direct connections to almost 50 destinations; Kerry Airport has direct routes to the UK and Europe and a flight time to Dublin of less than one hour
Beautiful coastlines and rural scenery – Kerry boasts over 350 km of coastline, the Wild Atlantic Way, and is home to Ireland’s highest mountain Carrauntoohil, and 26,000 acres of Killarney National Park. Cork has the coastal beauty of Mizen Head, Schull Harbour, Kinsale, Kenmare, and the wonderful conservation projects at Fota Wildlife Park.
More than 20 Blue Flag beaches across Cork and Kerry.
Rich cultural life – Other Voices music festival, Cork Jazz Festival, Cork Opera House and Blarney Castle IMPACT
One of the big reasons why people move to Ireland’s South West is to improve their work-life balance. Smaller schools, shorter commutes and an emphasis on sports and outdoor pursuits makes our corner of Ireland the perfect location to raise a family.