CPEER is a peer-to-peer group for academic staff and researchers, supported by the Teaching and Learning Unit (TLU) at MTU. It was initiated by Lisa Murphy, Lecturer, Department of Management and Enterprise and Dr Helen McGuirk, Head, Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence.

CPEER - Community of Practice for Entrepreneurship Educators and Researchers - is focused on supporting educators in their research and teaching endeavours in entrepreneurship education. It is part of the vibrant entrepreneurial culture across MTU and aims to enable collaboration on matters connected to Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education (EEE). The CPEER group allows members to discuss all aspects of teaching in the EEE space, including pedagogical tools, assessments, new practices, research, upcoming seminars and conference opportunities.

CPEER is associated with the ACE group (Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship) but distinct from it as CPEER’s members are educators in EEE. The group will also benefit from the planned roll-out of the Digital Badge in Entrepreneurship for early career educators in the subject, and enhance the work of the recently awarded NTL Forum DELTA Award for Entrepreneurship.

The group meets twice each semester for one hour. The format of the sessions changes depending on speakers, topics or activities.

An inaugural workshop was held on Monday, December 17, 2018. This workshop was open to all staff involved in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Education. The aim of this workshop was to construct a collective vision for CPEER and discuss the needs of entrepreneurship educators, the challenges they face and the state of the art in EEE in terms of pedagogy and practise

The insights that we gathered from this highly productive workshop enabled us to commence planning activities in a second workshop held on February 8th where we identified tasks (aligned to our Vision) that we are intent on accomplishing for 2019. This planning exercise with a growing CPEER membership was very fruitful in that it allowed us to prioritise tasks, some of which include developing an-online shared resource for CPEER to capture members’ details, areas of teaching and research, pedagogical resources, upcoming seminars in the EEE space, etc. This is a significant undertaking, which will leverage MTU's WorkVivo intranet initiative.

We also firmed up the finer details of a very exciting seminar that was held during Innovation Week 2019 on the 8th March, where the illustrious Professor Thomas Cooney from TU Dublin gave a talk entitled “Missing Entrepreneurs: Research & Practice Opportunities in Minority Entrepreneurship”. Details about the seminar are available here (March 2019 News).

CPEER was successful in its funding application to the TLU Learning Community (LC) fund. This funding ensures that CPEER has the means to realise its Vision enabling it to become, over time, an important component of MTU's entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

CPEER in the Hincks Centre's News 

• CPEER Launch - Fantastic turnout for inaugural CPEER meeting, 17.12.18.

• CPEER Holds Second Gathering - Membership of CPEER growing, 08.02.19.

• Hincks Centre & CPEER Seminar Series - CIT Innovation Week: Day 2, 03.03.20.

• CPEER March Gathering - Community of Practice for Entrepreneurship Educators and Researchers, 02.03.21.

• CPEER October Gathering - CPEER's fourth year kicks-off to a great start!, 19.10.21.

• CPEER Gathering - Back in the Room! 07.10.22.

• Learning from Our Peers - Prof Helle Neergaard Presents to CPEER. 23 May, 2023.

• CPEER Welcomes International Scholar - Dr Daniel Kruse Presents. 19 June, 2023.

• LEGO® Online! - Rebecca Robinson Presents to CPEER. 16 October, 2023

• AI Is Here! Patricia Doyle Presents at CPEER Gathering. 8 February, 2024.

If you are interested in being part of CPEER or if you have any queries, please contact us here at the Hincks Centre - HincksCentre@mtu.ie.