Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, visited NovaUCD, the hub of innovation and start-up activities at University College Dublin (UCD), this afternoon.
Commissioner Zaharieva was accompanied by Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission, and members of her Cabinet.
The visit provided an opportunity to showcase the strength of UCD’s innovation, commercialisation and deep-tech start-up ecosystem, together with UCD’s leading position in the national innovation ecosystem, and to highlight UCD’s research funding successes, particularly in terms of prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants to the Commissioner and her team.
Commissioner Zaharieva and the accompanying delegation were welcomed to NovaUCD by UCD President, Professor Orla Feely together with Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact and Triona Mc Cormack, UCD Vice-President for Strategy and External Engagement, Liam Cronin, UCD Director of Innovation and Dipti Pandya, UCD Director of Research.
Kevin Sherry, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland and Dr Helen McBreen, Partner, Atlantic Bridge were also in attendance. Dr McBreen has recently been appointed as a new member of the Board of Directors of the EIC Fund.
Pictured (l-r) at NovaUCD are; Liam Cronin, UCD Director of Innovation, Dr Helen McBreen, Partner, Atlantic Bridge; Prof. Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact; Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission; Prof. Orla Feely, UCD President; Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva; Triona Mc Cormack, UCD Vice-President for Strategy and External Engagement; Kevin Sherry, Executive Director, Enterprise Ireland; Dipti Pandya, UCD Director of Research and Manuel Aleixo, Member of Cabinet of Commissioner Zaharieva.
While at NovaUCD, Commissioner Zaharieva met with a number of deep-tech start-ups, including; Jason Lynch, CEO, Equal1; Breda O’Regan, Co-founder and CEO, Lia EyeCare; Aoife Kelly, Co-founder and COO, Celtonn; Dr Darragh Whelan, Co-founder and COO, Output Sports and Alan Barry, Co-founder and CEO, Plasma Bound.
Meeting with the Commissioner and the Director-General for Research and Innovation the founders had the opportunity to highlight the research foundations of their technological innovations and the supports they have received to date from UCD and NovaUCD on their entrepreneurial journeys, to outline the role of EU funding in supporting research-led spin-outs and their recommendations to make it easier to start and scale a business in Europe.
Pictured at NovaUCD is Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva speaking with Alan Barry, CEO and co-founder, Plasma Bound.
The Commissioner and the Director-General for Research and Innovation also met with a number of UCD ERC grant holders, Professor Eoin Casey, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering; Professor Emma Teeling, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and Associate Professor Junli Xu, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering.
Pictured (l-r) at NovaUCD are; Prof. Orla Feely, UCD President; Associate Professor Junli Xu; Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva; Professor Emma Teeling; Professor Eoin Casey and Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission.
During a roundtable discussion with the grant holders, chaired by Dipti Pandya, UCD Director of Research, the Commissioner and Director-General for Research and Innovation learnt about their career paths, what led to their being awarded an ERC grant in UCD and the discussion also provided the grant holders with an opportunity to provide their feedback on the European Research Area (ERA) Act which the Commission is planning to adopt later this year.
Pictured at NovaUCD – a roundtable discussion between Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva and UCD ERC grant holders.
Note for all photographs above
Credit – Damien Eagers Photography
© European Union, 2026, licensed under CC BY 4.0
ENDS
20 July 2026
For further information contact Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, e: (opens in a new window)miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.
Editors Notes
As Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, (opens in a new window)Ekaterina Zaharieva’s task is to drive the EU’s ambition to put research and innovation, science and technology at the centre of our economy. She will foster investment and cooperation, creating the right conditions for researchers to thrive and develop new skills, and the innovation needed for the EU’s competitiveness, security and sustainability goals.
She is responsible for:
- expanding the European Innovation Council and the European Research Council
- proposing a European Research Area Act to guarantee the free movement of researchers, scientific knowledge and technology
- developing a long-term strategy to boost European Research Infrastructure and a European Innovation Act to streamline our regulatory framework and facilitate access to venture capital
- developing ways to support EU start- and scale-ups and creating a network of Trusted Investors to bring together deep tech investors across Europe
- preparing a new Strategy for European Life Sciences to unlock high-value technologies
- working on an Advanced Materials Act to support the research and innovation process through to manufacturing and deployment
- increasing the uptake of artificial intelligence by European scientists and helping to set up a European AI Research Council
- implementing and overseeing the funding from EU research and innovation programmes, such as Horizon Europe, as well as the EU Missions.
University College Dublin, under the Breaking Boundaries strategy is committed to growing our role as Ireland’s global university, bringing the best of Ireland to the world and the best of the world to Ireland, expanding our strategic global partnerships and reach. We see our partnerships with industry and third level stakeholders across the EU and beyond supported by EU programmes as a manifestation of this commitment.
UCD is currently in the top 100 universities ranked by QS. UCD is first nationally for Horizon Europe funding, with €161 million in signed grant agreements and is ranked 21st among all participating HEIs and 16th among EU Member States. Nationally, UCD holds ca. 45% of the prestigious ERC frontier research awards. (opens in a new window)www.ucd.ie
NovaUCD, named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s Leading Start-Up Hubs for the last three years in a row, has been nurturing and supporting high-tech start-ups with global potential since 2003. Since then NovaUCD has supported over 650 new ventures, start-ups and established companies to grow and scale on the global scale, including, Equal1, Celtonn, Lia EyeCare, Output Sports and Plasma Bound. In the last 20+ years the NovaUCD entrepreneurial community has raised €1.5+ billion in funding. NovaUCD was originally funded through a unique public-private partnership that included, AIB; AMD; Arthur Cox; Deloitte; Enterprise Ireland; Ericsson; Goodbody and UCD. (opens in a new window)www.novaucd.ie
