Derry student wins Catalyst internship

Megan Doherty from St Mary’s College in the city is one of five young people with entrepreneurial flair to get a paid placement on Catalyst Inc (formerly the Northern Ireland Science Park) Connect Young Founders programme.

The five will have the opportunity to pitch for an additional prize of £5,000 at the end of August, to invest in their innovative business idea.

For the next eight weeks these budding entrepreneurs will get a unique opportunity to develop their business idea, with the support of Northern Ireland’s most experienced entrepreneurs and businesses.

Based on Connect’s globally proven personalized accelerator process, Springboard, the five will enjoy a series of business workshops, mentoring and exposure to some of Northern Ireland’s most innovative businesses.

Megan will be joined by Dermot Savage from Newry, who is developing an agri-tech product to reduce mortality during lambing; Georgia Hamill from Dungannon who is working on an App that intervenes to support young people with stress and mental illness; Belfast’s David Hatton who is developing a product to support families and relatives suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and Niall McGrath who is also from Belfast who is developing an app to fundamentally change the way children learn languages.

All five of the entrepeneures pitched their innovations to win the opportunity, from a very strong field of applicants.

Director of Springboard at Catalyst Inc, John Knapton said: “The judges were overwhelmed by the high calibre of applicants for this year’s internship. The maturity and future potential for their business ideas are tremendous.”