About
Our Mission
The Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre creates opportunities to connect students with businesses through training, mentorship, coaching and consulting activities. With a focus on growth, innovation and cultivating the entrepreneurial mindset, the Centre is committed to helping the Atlantic Canadian economy grow and prosper.
Our History
The Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre is a leading provider of university-based business support services in Atlantic Canada. Over the past 25 years, the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre has worked to enhance our community’s prosperity by helping business and student leaders reach their entrepreneurial potential. Recognized regionally, nationally and globally for their programs, the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre supports leaders through consulting, training, promoting entrepreneurship and cultivating community connections.
As a division of Saint Mary’s University, the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre works to connect students and faculty to businesses. The Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre provides clients with access to students’ fresh ideas and faculty’s expert opinions and leading research. Using this approach, the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre offers clients innovative and cost-effective solutions to a wide range of business problems.
In the last five years, the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre has engaged more than 4,000 students and 3,000 businesses in entrepreneurial support and promotion activities. The Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre continues to build on past success by increasing support to students and business owners alike through enhancing our services and support to meet the needs of our growing business community.
2021-2022
In the numbers
In Funding Provided
Student Engagements
Student Entrepreneurs Supported
Jobs Created
OUR PILLARS
Ignite
We believe that building entrepreneurial skills will serve all students well, either through entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship as they enter the workforce. The goal of this phase is to ignite and inspire an entrepreneurial mindset in students from all faculties by offering various training sessions, guest speakers and competitions.
Invest
We recognize that in order for our students and entrepreneurs to successfully develop their entrepreneurial ideas, small financial investments and incentives are essential. Our strong community partnerships and support from the university allow us to help both student and local entrepreneurs grow by providing access to financial programming and services such as wage subsidies and microgrants.
iNNOVATE
This phase of our programming focuses on design thinking, iterating, prototyping, etc. the Arthur L. Irving Entrepreneurship Centre provides training and a safe environment for students and community businesses to develop, test and pivot new ideas.
Grow
We provide specialized services and programming to help students and businesses overcome challenges and reach their full potential. We provide training to help businesses increase capacity, improve processes and scale.
