A study group of nine people led by Professor Valdis Avotins , Director at Ventspils University College, Engineering Research Centre and  representing Latvian and Estonian Universities, Science Parks and Public Administrations, was based at the Rubicon centre for meetings during the week ending the 13th May.

The study visit was funded by the Latvian- Estonian cross border project and its objective was to see at first-hand how centres such as Rubicon and Nimbus cooperate, within the context of a large high level educational such as CIT, to deliver very meaningful and valuable supports to entrepreneurs and business start-ups.

Over the course of its three day visit, the group had a number of interesting discussions with representatives of the Rubicon and Nimbus Centres and with the Industrial Liaison Office and it is hoped that arising from the visit, new project links will be developed with the new EU Member States in the area of innovation and entrepreneurship.

The group also visited the National Maritime College at  Ringaskiddy also had meetings with FAS, Enterprise Ireland and with the South Cork Enterprise Board.  A particularly interesting development of the visit arose during the group’s meeting with Dr. Niall Smith at the Blackrock Castle Observatory. By a unique coincidence the University of Ventspills  has a very large 32 metre antenna dish  similar to that being reinstated by CIT at Midleton.  Options are now being considered as to how these two rare pieces of telecommunications / space exploration infrastructure can be used in tandem for research.