Image: Trinity Walton Club
The incubator, a collaboration between Tangent and Trinity Walton Club, will run as a three-week online programme this year.
Trinity College Dublin has announced the launch of its STEAM+ICE (science, technology, engineering, art, maths, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship) incubator for young people.
The project is a collaboration between the Trinity Walton Club, a STEM club for secondary school students, and Tangent, the college’s start-up workspace. The incubator is free, open to all secondary students in Ireland, and accepting applications from today (30 August).
STEAM+ICE usually operates as a week-long in-person programme at Trinity, but will be online this year. Participants will take part in three weeks of workshops and challenges, culminating in a final event in mid-October where they can pitch their ideas to a panel of judges.
The winning students will receive a number of prizes including scholarships to the Walton Club, ongoing mentorship for Tangent and branded hoodies for their project.
Kat Bauer Weiser, interim director of the Walton Club, said: “Bringing passionate young people together through STEAM+ICE always creates a bang and year on year we are blown away by the creative and innovative projects that emerge from the incubator.
“We’re very excited to see what will happen this year as we will bring together young people from all corners of Ireland.”
Weiser also noted the potential upsides of the new format for the incubator. “Students can form a team with their friends or sign up individually and have the opportunity to work with peers from anywhere in the country. As we’ve moved the programme online, we’re delighted to be able to open up this experience to so many more students this year.”
Gavan Drohan, head of student entrepreneurship at Tangent, added: “This is a unique opportunity for young people who want to bring bright ideas to life and potentially solve a local or global issue in the process.
“Whether they’re passionate about climate change, digital literacy or health and wellbeing, we know that young people have the potential to solve some of society’s biggest issues. This is their opportunity to shine.”
Tangent is also notable for running the third-level LaunchBox accelerator every summer, which funded 10 student start-ups this year.
