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IdeasLab

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IdeasLab

IdeasLab is University of Galway's student innovation hub. We fuel student creativity, ideas and innovation.

If you want to meet new people, develop lifelong skills, work to solve global challenges or set up a new business, IdeasLab is the place to start.

Take your next step with us.

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Message from Our Director of Entrepreneurial Development

Since taking up the role of Director in 2020, I have experienced the creative and innovative energy of the campus and am proud to be part of a community dedicated to creating a rich and inclusive learning environment for all our students.

University of Galway is a special place. Walking across our campus and onto our main university concourse will bring you to a unique space called IdeasLab where our community of students, enterprise partners, alumni and staff are engaged creatively in sense making, noticing and experimenting with ideas to advance innovation in and for the world. We enable and support our students to imagine future possibilities and shape the world around us to bring those ideas to life.

Our human-centred design approach to teaching, innovation and entrepreneurship creates the environment for creative thinking, idea generation and exploration and radical experimentation. Our approach helps our community to address many of the challenges we face across business and society. We are proudly involved as a pillar of the Designing Futures project at University of Galway. The project has been designed to empower, educate and support students to lead better lives and succeed in the complex world we live in.

Our graduates, whether in Engineering, Science, Arts or Healthcare are equipped to approach situations, questions or challenges through a process of creative thinking, empathy and design that they learn while students with us. They are future inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs who bring their creativity, imagination and skills to many different careers when they leave IdeasLab. Our graduates have gone out into the world and created impact, both on our economy and our society. For me, it is both an honour and a privilege to be part of their journey with IdeasLab, University of Galway.

Find out more about IdeasLab vision

The Empathy Studio

The Empathy Studio is a unique, immersive experience which combines the science of human behaviour with the art of human-centred design.

The award-winning Empathy Studio is the first of its kind in Ireland and allows participants to experience the world through the perspective of others. Through carefully designed simulations and sensory experiences, it helps build empathy, understanding and human-centred innovation skills.

Whether supporting teaching, research, product development, or service design, the Empathy Studio strengthens empathy as a core innovation capability and provides a powerful platform for translating empathy into meaningful action and impact.

Find out more about the Empathy Studio at IdeasLab