The kick-off meeting for a €3.8m European co-operation project took place at the Rubicon Centre, Cork Institute of Technology on Thursday 17th May. The project entitled TESLA, focuses on innovative supports to early stage technology-based enterprises.

TESLA which is led by the BMW Regional Assembly is a partnership between 8 organisations from six EU Member States. The TESLA project which is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the INTERREG North West Europe programme, aims to provide a range of supports to early stage, technology-based start-up firms, with export potential. The project comprises 10 project actions that will help the supported firms to access innovation and product development supports and internationalise more quickly. Overall, 612 firms will access supports and 45 new high potential start-up enterprises are expected to be established.