IdeasLab

IdeasLab is University of Galway's student innovation hub. We fuel student creativity, ideas and innovation. 
 
If you want to meet new people, develop lifelong skills, work to solve global challenges or set up a new business, IdeasLab is the place to start.  
 
Take your next step with us.

Message from Our Director of Entrepreneurial Development

Since taking up the role of Director in 2020, I have experienced the creative and innovative energy of the campus and am proud to be part of a community dedicated to creating a rich and inclusive learning environment for all our students.

University of Galway is a special place. Walking across our campus and onto our main university concourse will bring you to a unique space called IdeasLab where our community of students, enterprise partners, alumni and staff are engaged creatively in sense making, noticing and experimenting with ideas to advance innovation in and for the world.   We enable and support our students to imagine future possibilities and shape the world around us to bring those ideas to life.

Our human centred design approach to teaching, innovation and entrepreneurship creates the environment for creative thinking, idea generation and exploration and radical experimentation. Our approach helps our community to address many of the challenges we face across business and society.  We are proudly involved as a pillar of the Designing Futures project at the University of Galway.  The project has been designed to empower, educate and support students to lead better lives and succeed in the complex world we live in. 

Our graduates, whether in Engineering, Science, Arts or Healthcare are equipped to approach situations, questions or challenges through a process of creative thinking, empathy and design that they learn while students with us.  They are future inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who bring their creativity, imagination and skills to many different careers when they leave Ideaslab. Our graduates have gone out into the world and created impact, both on our economy and our society.   For me, it is both an honour and a privilege to be part of their journey with IdeasLab, University of Galway.

Find out more about IdeasLab vision 

Enterprise Challenge

The enterprise challenge brings together multidisciplinary student teams to solve challenges donated by our enterprise partners.

Over the course of 8 weeks students work through a design sprint incorporating team development, empathy, problem definition, ideation, prototyping, testing and storytelling to develop a solution direction for the enterprise partner. 

Running alongside their weekly workshops are 5 mentoring sessions (weeks 3-7) which develop students understanding of the problem and the solution fit for the industry and enterprise facing the challenge.  The enterprise challenge focusses on skills and talent development.

Find out more about IdeasLab Enterprise Challenge 

Connect with us

Connect with IdeasLab to find out more about our programmes.

You can connect with IdeasLab on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok or you can email us a query to ideaslab@universityofgalway.ie

You can also connect individually with any of our team members. 

Find out more about connecting with IdeasLab 

IdeasLab Twitter

IdeasLab Funders ‌