University deal for Sligo start- up firm
A small Sligo start- up company has signed a contract with The University of Manchester to develop a wellbeing mobile application for the institution’s 40,000 students and 10,000 staff members.
StudyBundles, which is headquartered at IT Sligo’s Innovation Centre, also has an office in Manchester, less than a mile from the university’s Oxford Road campus.
The innovative new software will utilise the latest native app technologies, building on the success of StudyBundles’ established CampusConnect product, which is already helping boost student enrolments for a number of leading Irish universities.
The company has also signed a new contract to provide the CampusConnect app at Limerick IT and recently renewed its deals with the University of Limerick, Maynooth University and Letterkenny IT. StudyBundles is currently in talks with several other UK and Irish institutions on providing them with CampusConnect.
Two of the company founders — Declan Sweeney and John O’Hagan — spent several years living in Manchester and London before returning home to set up StudyBundles.
Declan and the third co- founder, Daniel Hinkley, were both lecturers before setting up the business and are “also former students at the University of Manchester. Daniel runs the company’s Manchester office.
The bespoke wellbeing app, developed for the University of Manchester, is an extension of StudyBundles’ CampusConnect app.
With advanced personalisation features, push notifications and geolocation functionality, the app will serve individual users with information tailored to them. Details of wellbeing events and activities on campus and in and around the local area will be delivered according to user preferences, alongside real- time information about what is happening close by. The University of Manchester is the largest single- site university in the UK and has the biggest student community of around 40,000.