With its enviable pipeline of talent, attractive tax regime and robust R&D ecosystem, Ireland continues to be seen as a prime location for biopharmaceutical businesses to flourish. This, paired with the growing infrastructure and investment opportunities available to support these businesses, has prompted a boom across life sciences in Dublin, described by the Irish Times as a “golden period of innovation.”

Dublin’s innovation anchor for life science enterprises, Cherrywood Campus caters for companies at the early stages of incubation, with specialised lab, office and collaboration space for over 100 life science and health technology professionals, entrepreneurs, and researchers. It also includes a ‘co-lab’ where early-stage businesses can rent bench space.

Cherrywood opened at the end of 2022 and is already the chosen home for many innovating companies, including APC, Genuity Science, Dell, Zoetis, Accenture and Avalon.

Growing a Company at Cherrywood

Jude Ngadaonye is a Senior R&D Specialist at Kora Healthcare, a family-owned pharmaceutical company in Ireland that develops innovative medical devices and cutting-edge pharma products. To continue its mission to deliver better consumer and clinical products, Jude knew it was time to move from university labs to a specialist incubator. He found Cherrywood, the esteemed location for life sciences in Dublin, where he could “set up, move in and get going.”

Jude explains how Ireland’s ‘Silicon Valley for Life Sciences’ helped to drive Kora’s journey: “Kora Healthcare is expanding all the time. We’ve previously used university labs, but these are non GMP, so we didn’t have access to things that you would typically have in a specialist incubator like Cherrywood.

“Cherrywood was a no brainer – everything was in place here for us to move straight in, set up our equipment and get started. We have all the relevant facilities that we need around us, and the space is well designed to be able to work from anywhere. Crucially, there are other companies within the incubator that you can learn from or collaborate with.

“Pioneer Group was very good in terms of supporting us. I absolutely see us being here for a long time, even as we’re growing.”

The Silicon Docks for Life Sciences in Dublin

Operations Manager Robyn Murray is on a mission to transform disease treatment. At Inventia Life Science, a world leader in advanced cell models for biomedical research and drug discovery, she found a like-minded team that shares her vision.

To advance its innovative Rastrum platform, Inventia needed a location to better support its drive to enhance drug discovery and speed-up biomedical research. Enter Cherrywood. Nestled in the heart of the cluster for life sciences in Dublin, Cherrywood provides an optimal ecosystem for Inventia’s pioneering work.

Robyn Murray explains: “I’ve always had a passion for biology, particularly where biology goes wrong, so I wanted to join a company that was working towards revolutionising how we treat disease. That’s where I came across Inventia.”

Cherrywood’s state-of-the-art labs enable Inventia to support its customers better, particularly as the incubator is located within its European base.

Robyn continues: “The team here in Dublin is small but mighty, and we needed to be able to hit the ground running. Pioneer Group has really enabled and supported us in doing so.

“As we continue to scale and grow our business, we’re going to need to take on more team members and grow our lab space, so having the presence here in Cherrywood and that working relationship with Pioneer Group will be hugely beneficial when it comes to expanding.

“The vision for Cherrywood is to be like the Silicon Docks for life sciences in Dublin and Ireland; it’s really exciting to be at the epicentre of that.”

A Hub for Collaboration

Cherrywood is also driving manufacturing and process, playing a vital role in shaping the infrastructure of Dublin’s emerging life sciences cluster.

Ronan Furlong, Executive Director of Dublin City University’s Innovation Campus, DCU ALPHA, says: “It’s great to see innovation ecosystems emerging across Ireland. With Cherrywood, there is now an ability to cater for emerging life science start-ups in all sorts of areas, such as cell and gene therapies, animal science, crop science and so forth, particularly in the manufacturing and process side of things.”

The cluster capability of a site like Cherrywood is critically essential for the growth of businesses. A hub for collaboration, it enables companies to engage with each other, partner with nearby universities, engage with NIBRT (which is just around the corner) and ultimately tap into Pioneer Group’s capabilities in areas like venture capital, mentoring, and network development, as well as our Accelerator Programme.

Ronan concludes: “The ability to have this all on one site here in Cherrywood is a new, exciting phenomenon in the Irish life science arena.”