NUIGALWAY was founded in 1845 as QCG and, from 1904 to 1997, was known as UCG before changing to its current title. The university has 17,500 students across five Colleges with highly active agendas in teaching and research. 15% of the students are pursuing postgraduate studies and 2,300 international students come from 92 countries. It was recognised as Irish University of the Year 2018 by the Sunday Times.

NUIGALWAY is home to the TechInnovate (techinnovate.org) entrepreneurship development programme. Ireland is ideally placed to leverage the bio-waste startup revolution due to its agrifood heritage and burgeoning tech sector. Based on MIT’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship, TechInnovate immerses a team of engineer, businessperson and designer in an agrifood setting for needs finding/ carrying out primary market research. The team develops an investable business plan to commercialise an appropriate technology innovation to solve the key identified need. The TechInnovate Team work with students at all levels of education from primary level through to postgraduate programmes and beyond into industry.