Centre for Entrepreneurship Research

Based at Dundalk Institute of Technology, the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (CER) was established in 2001 under the direction of Dr Colette Henry. Since then the CER has established itself as a national centre for independent, high-level research of relevance to businesses, policy makers and academics on a national and international level. The CER continues to add to current knowledge about entrepreneurship generally, while, more specifically, setting the agenda for female entrepreneurship research on the island. In addition, the CER provides research opportunities for young researchers and works towards creating an enterprise culture by informing educational programmes and providing research supervision to Masters and PhD students.

Current Research

• Female Entrepreneurs – Business Growth and Incubation projects: The Centre for Entrepreneurship Research has been appointed to undertake two new research projects, funded by the NDP Gender Equality Unit of the Dept of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. These deal with incubation and female business growth.
• E-Learning for Female Entrepreneurs (Elfe) (Jan 2004 – Sept 2007) The project partnership, comprising Universities, Centres for Entrepreneurship Research and business advisers from Ireland, UK, Germany, France and Belgium, received €2,400,000 under the Interreg IIIb programme to develop and pilot-testing an online learning course for female entrepreneurs.
• Women in Enterprise (WIE) Programme (June 2004 – June 2005) The ‘Co. Monaghan Women in Enterprise Programme’ was a ‘women specific’ enterprise training programme which comprised personal development, training, mentoring and financial assistance for aspiring female entrepreneurs in Co. Monaghan. The Final Evaluation of this project stated that 73% of the women participating in the project started a business and the programme was regarded as a best practice exemplar in enterprise support.
• ProWomen (Promotion of Women’s Entrepreneurship) (Sept 2002 – Sept 2003) This pan-European project comprised partners from 20 European regions including Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the UK who represented key agencies and academics in the field of entrepreneurship.
• UNISPIN (1995-onwards) The UNISPIN project was supported by the Innovation Programme of the European Commission DGXIII. The purpose of the project was to offer practical help to the regions to promote new business, self-employment, economic diversification and technology transfer by assisting the establishment of “spin-off” programmes in universities, higher education establishments and research laboratories.
• The DIANA Project (2003 onwards) The consortium partners believe that information and knowledge that come from solid data can have irrefutable effects on changing attitudes, opinions and practices and can provide a base for influencing policy and systems. The CER is the Irish representative in the DIANA consortium.

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