Meet the Team

Paul O Reilly

GROWTHhub Project Lead

Paul O’Reilly leads GROWTHhub at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), an initiative funded by the Higher Education Authority to foster entrepreneurship and innovation among students and enterprise-based learners. Under his leadership, GROWTHhub delivers a wide range of impactful activities, including design thinking workshops, hackathons, entrepreneurship accelerators, internship programmes, and the development of entrepreneurship and innovation modules. GROWTHhub has also served as the national lead for the global ClimateLaunchpad competition, supporting climate-focused start-ups, and has delivered start-up programmes for marginalised youth in Dublin’s inner city.

Prior to his current role, Paul held several senior academic positions at TU Dublin, including Head of School of Management, Head of Research, and Head of the Department of Management Studies.

Paul has designed and led numerous entrepreneurship and innovation programmes in collaboration with industry. These include the MSc in Leadership, Innovation and Technology and the MSc in Technology and Innovation Management for Technology Ireland Skillnet, the Diploma in Innovation Management in SMEs for Chambers Ireland, and the Diploma in Entrepreneurial Leadership for Workday.

His research focuses on innovation management, particularly within university contexts. He has published in leading international journals such as Long Range Planning, Journal of Technology Transfer, International Journal of Technology Management, Journal of Industrial Economics, Research-Technology Management, Small Enterprise Research, Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Retail and Distribution Management, Journal of Food Product Marketing, and Irish Business and Administrative Review.

Paul has served as guest editor for several journal special issues, including two for the Journal of Technology Transfer, and others for Small Enterprise Research and the Irish Journal of Management (special issue on Entrepreneurship Education). He has chaired the International Technology Transfer Society Conference and co-chairs the Annual Share and Learn Symposium for Entrepreneurship Education.

He has completed consultancy research for the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Enterprise Ireland, and the Royal Irish Academy. He was also a partner in the Erasmus+ Growing Indonesia project, collaborating with seven Indonesian universities to strengthen their entrepreneurship and enterprise engagement capabilities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul led the TU Dublin COVID-19 Enterprise Response Forum, which developed strategic recommendations to enhance enterprise resilience.

Paul serves on the board of Synergy Global, a TU Dublin business incubator, is a member of the National Standards Authority of Ireland ISO 56000 TC45 Standards Committee, and is a judge for the National Start Up Awards. He previously served on the steering group for the InterTradeIreland All-Island Innovation Community.