Late last year, Enterprise Ireland announced regional funding for manufacturing in the mid-west and life sciences research in the south-east. One of the projects supported was Kinetic Labs, which is officially launching today (16 February) to support science-based companies in Waterford city.
According to its founders, Kinetic Labs is Ireland’s first ‘rent a lab’ space. Start-ups and larger companies can rent the facility’s 400 sq m of wet lab space, office amenities, meeting rooms and café. Some of the wet lab space is furnished for smaller start-ups, with other areas left unfurnished for established companies.
Alongside the Enterprise Ireland REDF grant, the facility is funded by WorkLAB and Waterford City and County Council. One of its directors, Patsy Carney, has extensive ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Carney co-founded chemotherapy pharma company EirGen in 2005, which was bought by Miami company Opko in 2015 for $135m.
Kinetic Labs, Waterford. Image: Colin Shanahan/DigiCol Photography
Carney recently spoke about Kinetic Labs on The Science of Business, a podcast hosted by Louise Grubb, the founder of pharma storage provider Q1 Scientific.
He said: “We know that Kinetic Labs will play a critical role in building on the capability and entrepreneurship potential of existing indigenous and multinational life science companies here in the south-east.”
Carney described the south-east as a region with a “core cluster of life sciences and medical device companies” and a “critical mass of talent”.
“I know that for start-ups, finding affordable and flexible lab space can be a big challenge,” he said. “Kinetic Labs offers the ideal space for those working in the industry who might be considering their own entrepreneurial journey along with spinouts from universities and third-level institutions, plus the life sciences sector, sciences, medical device, pharma, biopharma and even the higher-end functional food sector.
“There is even great opportunity for the specialist equipment suppliers to use the space to demo products to potential customers.”
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