Dr Cecilia Hegarty

Dr Cecilia Hegarty is Research and Programme Manager for the Regional Development Centre based at Dundalk Institute of Technology. As well as continuing the research agenda for the Centre, Cecilia manages EU-funded and Strategic Innovation Fund projects.

Cecilia has overall responsibility for the Success through Succession Programme in Ireland, a psychology-based programme for family busineses in the border region assisting them with their own unique succession issues. With the recognised reputation of the Regional Development Centre in supporting growth companies in the border region, the Success through Succession programme is a significant commitment by the Institute to create connections in the innovation pipeline and to provide specific supports for family businesses in Ireland especially with succession planning.

Cecilia also manages the ACE Consortia, a Strategic Innovation Funded Cycle 2 project involving 5 Higher Education Institutions in Ireland where Dundalk Institute of Technology is the lead partner. The ACE Initiative is a collaborative partnership between NUI Galway, IT Blanchardstown, Cork IT and IT Sligo. The aim of the ACE Initiative is to create entrepreneurial graduates by exposing non-business students to the opportunity for formal study in the subject areas of entrepreneurship and to provide practical experience in applied enterprise. The project also seeks to affect organisational change within and between the institutions to reflect entrepreneurial processes involving collaboration between the academic Schools and Departments, incubation and technology transfer offices. There are two layers of focus; staff and students which has led to ground-breaking collaboration between the Higher Education Institutions involved including co-teaching approaches and cross-disciplinary learning environments and a 2-year Student Enterprise Internship Programme for recent graduates to enable peer-to-peer marketing of  "the enterprise bug".

Although a science graduate, Cecilia’s PhD study involved pioneering all-island work into the development of family businesses in Ireland. Cecilia’s current research interests relate to family SME growth and succession, entrepreneurship education and applied enterprise research.

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