Silicon Republic reports on the new â¬21m Government investment in Community Enterprise Centres (CEC) -
‘The CEC Scheme is a community led initiative in the form of a partnership between the local community and the State whereby the local community provide business space in a centre and Enterprise Ireland fund up to 50pc of the costs of the centre. The remainder of the funding is actively raised by the community itself from local sources.Announcing the latest investment, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin TD described the CEC scheme as a partnership between the State and the local community âwhere business space is provided in a supportive environment for emerging entrepreneurs.â?’
I’m wondering if this scheme is something that’s compatible with the aims of Coworking? Could hotdesking space be set aside for nomadic independents? Or could they help to take up the slack?
Locating the Press Release on Enterprise Ireland’s own website reveals more interesting figures regarding geographical spread (though sadly no map) -
‘To date Enterprise Ireland has approved over â¬34m and paid out over â¬22m for some 137 CEC projects including new CECs (107) and expansions to existing CECs (30). Of the 137 projects: 20 are at various stages of planning or construction; 112 are located outside Dublin city; 8 projects were completed in the Regions in 2004 and 3 have been completed in 2005 to date”, The Minister Martin added.‘
Further searching revealed a detailed Word Document on the scheme and contact details for more information. So I’ve emailed Gillian Slattery for her thoughts on potential compatibility between our goals.
Technorati Tags: community enterprise centers, CEC
#1 by tcorcoran on April 10, 2007 - 3:12 pm
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The Community Enterprise centres were originally intended for localised and often relatively low-tech businesses. However, they are rapidly changing their profile and aiming to attract companies in knowledge-based businesses, higher up the value chain. Many of these centres are quite large and offer a well-developed set of services. I work with both the regional and national organisations that represent the CEC’s and will start to make them aware of the coworking discussion.
I can’t see why they would not be interested if they have suitable space available.
#2 by James Corbett (EirePreneur) on April 10, 2007 - 8:29 pm
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That’s great news, thanks again Tom! One of the first things I’d love to see coming out of any discussion is simply a map of CEC locations.