UCD Innovation Academy continues to turn student ideas into real-world impact, serving as one of Ireland’s most vibrant hubs for student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindsets within UCD.
Pioneering Student Entrepreneurship at UCD
Since 2010, Innovation Academy has supported thousands of students to think and act entrepreneurially across disciplines, from STEM to the creative arts. This work spans undergraduate electives, master’s programmes, and professional graduate certificates.
The impact shines through the achievements of Innovation Academy alumni. Dr Shourjya Sanyal, a physicist turned innovation strategist and founder of Think Biosolution and Voice Health. In 2025, he was named a UCD Alumni Awardee in Research, Innovation and Impact, crediting an Innovation Academy module as a formative moment in learning to innovate from the end user. Other alumni have created award-winning consumer brands and shaped responsible innovation policy on the global stage.
How We Foster the Entrepreneurial Mindset
At the heart of UCD Innovation Academy’s success is the entrepreneurial mindset. It’s a way of thinking that creates value by recognising and acting on opportunities, and staying adaptable and resilient in the face of uncertainty.
To develop this mindset, the Academy focuses on core entrepreneurial competencies woven into every module and programme:
- Critical thinking and problem solving, through challenges that require framing complex problems and testing multiple solution pathways.
- Flexibility and adaptability, by working in fast-paced, ambiguous projects where briefs evolve and constraints shift.
- Communication and collaboration, through multidisciplinary teamwork and pitching to diverse audiences from peers to external partners.
- Comfort with risk and future orientation, by running experiments, making decisions with incomplete information, and reflecting on long-term impact.
- Opportunity recognition, initiative, self-reliance, creativity, and innovation, through design sprints, real-world briefs, and hands-on prototyping.
Research shows that this kind of entrepreneurial education boosts educational attainment and performance more broadly, by encouraging a growth mindset and resilience in learning.
The Academy’s philosophy is to “teach entrepreneurship by doing,” giving students repeated opportunities to test ideas in the real world.
Empowering Undergraduate Students
Undergraduate students encounter entrepreneurship early and often through a rich suite of Innovation Academy electives. These electives are designed to fit alongside their core degree. Each elective builds practical skills while reinforcing the same set of entrepreneurial competencies.
Over recent academic years, elective registrations have grown strongly, with annual totals consistently approaching or exceeding the 900–1,100 mark, showing sustained demand for entrepreneurial learning.
Innovation Academy also amplifies undergraduate entrepreneurship by partnering closely with student societies. For example, it collaborates with UCD Investors & Entrepreneurs Society and sponsors the Hult Prize, the world’s largest student social entrepreneurship competition.
Honing The Minds of Masters Students
For master’s students, entrepreneurship is embedded in advanced programmes such as the MSc in Design Thinking for Sustainability. This specific programme attract students who want to combine domain expertise with the ability to design solutions for complex social, environmental, and business challenges.
One MSc student described their Entrepreneurship module as the most memorable during the term, especially their final challenge to “make as much money as possible from 5 euros in 24 hours and start a seed fund.” It was an exercise that compresses opportunity recognition, teamwork, pitching, and rapid iteration into a single intense experience.
Once they came up with enough money for a seed fund, the students were then placed in the position of investors after they received business proposals from other students of UCD.
These kinds of immersive tasks help postgraduate students translate theory into action and leave with both a portfolio of work and a more entrepreneurial approach to their careers.
Embedding Creativity and Innovation with Entrepreneurship
The Graduate Certificate in Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship is one of Innovation Academy’s flagship programmes for developing entrepreneurial leaders across sectors. Over the past ten years, 1,542 students have completed this programme, making it a major engine for entrepreneurial talent at UCD.
During the course of the programme, “Fireside Chats” are also organised, with successful Irish entrepreneurs as guests, giving the students practical advice on how to jumpstart their own businesses.
Alumni outcomes illustrate the breadth of impact. Dr Shourjya Sanyal has gone on to hold senior roles at the intersection of AI and enterprise, found digital health ventures, and advise global bodies such as the World Health Organization’s Digital Health Board, while emphasising responsible and human‑centred innovation.
Other graduates include Shane Ryan, founder of fiid, a B Corp‑certified healthy ready-meals brand stocked in major supermarkets, and Sharon Keegan, CEO of athleisure brand Peachylean, who secured significant investment on BBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Why Entrepreneurship Matters Now
In a world defined by rapid technological change, climate pressures, and shifting labour markets, an entrepreneurial mindset is essential. By embedding entrepreneurial competencies across undergraduate, masters, and professional programmes, UCD Innovation Academy is helping students actively design the future.
From global competition finalists to award‑winning founders and innovation leaders, the Academy’s alumni show what is possible when students are given the skills, confidence, and community to turn ideas into action.