Reflections from an Atlantic Futures Researcher on the AwakenHub Founder Mission to Boston and New York
๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ง ๐๐% ๐จ๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐๐๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐๐ง๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฎ๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐ฌ.
So what happens when Irish women entrepreneurs are placed directly in front of international investors in Boston and New York?
Dr. Janine McGinn PhD from RS3 reflects on the recent AwakenHub Founder Mission and what it revealed for Atlantic Futuresโ research into women in entrepreneurship across the island of Ireland.
From investment ecosystems to cross-border collaboration, this piece explores how academic research and real-world enterprise can work together to close the funding gap.
As an academic at Atlantic Technological University and a researcher within the Atlantic Futures project, Dr Janine McGinnโs participation in the February 2026 Awaken Hub Founder Mission to the United States provided her with a valuable opportunity to examine, in real time, the scaling challenges faced by women entrepreneurs across the island of Ireland. These are her reflections.
When I joined the February 2026 AwakenHub Founder Mission to Boston and New York, I did so as both an academic researcher and a member of the Atlantic Futures consortium, seeking to better understand how women entrepreneurs experience international growth and investment ecosystems.
She continues...
AwakenHub plays an important role in this space. As Irelandโs first global community supporting women founders, it connects entrepreneurs with mentorship, investment opportunities and international networks that are often difficult to access. For Atlantic Futures, engagement with initiatives such as Awaken Hub allows our research to connect directly with founders navigating these challenges in practice.
My participation contributes to Atlantic Futuresโ Research Stream 3 (Work Package Three), supported through the Shared Island initiative and the Higher Education Authority as part of their North South Research Programme.
Our research (in RS3) examines the experiences and strategies of women entrepreneurs across the Northwest Atlantic Innovation Corridor, with particular focus on capacity building, internationalisation and the funding gap encountered when scaling ventures.
Learning Within Global Innovation Ecosystems
The mission programme across Boston and New York was designed around the practical realities of international expansion. Our first session took place at Babson College, where the โLanding Smart: IP Strategyโ workshop explored intellectual property considerations for entering the U.S. market.
For founders, this provided practical market-entry guidance. From a research perspective, it also offered insight into what Atlantic Futures identifies as entrepreneurial โlegitimationโ โ the process through which founders establish credibility with global investors and innovation stakeholders.
During a visit to University of Massachusetts Lowell, we explored innovation facilities and funding opportunities available to Irish founders, particularly within pharmaceutical innovation. Discussions around the Lowell Innovation Network Corridor (LINC) demonstrated how collaboration between universities, industry, government and non-profit organisations can strengthen regional innovation ecosystems, offering useful parallels with Atlantic Futuresโ cross-border ambitions.
Understanding Access to Investment
A particularly valuable element of the mission was participation in founder-to-investor pitch sessions organised by AwakenHub at the British Consulates in Boston and New York, alongside roundtable discussions at Babson College and First Friday engagements at the Irish Consulate in New York.
Participating as both delegate and researcher provided detailed insight into how women founders navigate high-level investment environments and build relationships within global networks.
Engagement with leaders including former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin and Donna Levin, CEO of the Arthur M. Blank School for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College, reinforced a challenge frequently highlighted in Atlantic Futures research: less than 10% of global venture capital funding reaches female founders.
Events such as the Capital with Impact showcase at the Bank of Ireland NYC Hub illustrated how targeted international engagement can begin addressing this imbalance. For Atlantic Futures, these moments represent research in action, where academic investigation and entrepreneurial experience directly intersect.
Collaboration and Research in Action
What stood out most during the mission was the collaborative environment created between researchers, founders, mentors and investors working toward reducing gender-based economic inequality.
Through partnership with AwakenHub, Atlantic Futures researchers are able to ensure that real-world entrepreneurial experiences inform academic research, policy discussion and future programme development. Initiatives like this enable evidence to emerge directly from lived entrepreneurial journeys rather than theoretical observation alone.
By mentoring and positioning Irish women entrepreneurs in front of international investors, the mission also contributes practically to addressing the women founder funding deficit and supporting pathways toward global scale.
Insights gathered during the mission will inform Shared Island policy briefings and ongoing Atlantic Futures research outputs, helping strengthen cross-border entrepreneurship supports and a sustainable research cluster focused on women in entrepreneurship across the island of Ireland.
Dr Janine McGinn
School of Business, Atlantic Technological University
Researcher, Atlantic Futures
About Atlantic Futures
Atlantic Futures, is a Strand III project funded under the North South Research Programme - a collaborative scheme funded through the Governmentโs Shared Island Fund. It is being administered by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
Original article below
https://www.atlanticfutures.com/news/atlantic-futures-researchers-contribute-to-awaken-hub-founder-mission-to-boston-and-new-york
