there is life beyond the m50 you know!!

after i had written my piece about the north west's emerging cluster of web 2.0 companies, which appears in today's irish times, came the news that enterprise ireland is investing €1.3m in a business incubation centre on the gmit campus in castlebar. julian ellison of tablanehad actually flagged this to me earlier in this week as he's keen tomove out of his home office and into somewhere with broadband and otherfacilities.

today came another piece of good news for entrepeneurs inthe region with the announcement of the enterprise developmentprogramme (edp) for tech start-ups in the midlands, west and northwest.it has a fund of €1 million and participants can get funding of up to€35k, incubation space in one of the participating colleges, as well astechnology and other supports. obviously micheal martin is trying to get as much publicity as possible for his few days down west. but it's still great to see that tech innovation outside the pale is being supported and as my piece today has shown, real companies are emerging as a result.

technorati tags: start-ups, ireland, funding, web2.0, entrepeneurs