FAQs

If you’d like to get in touch, please email us at team@joinpatch.org

Summer Programme

About Patch

  • Patch a community of exceptional young people from all over Ireland. The main point of entry is our 7-week summer programme, where talented young people come together to work on impactful projects and creative business ideas. Participants form teams and then spend the summer working on their chosen project, getting to know an energetic group of peers, and learning from brilliant mentors.

  • Patch is a full-time, in-person programme based in Dublin. The day-to-day takes place in Dogpatch Labs, but the programme also includes regular events in startup offices and hubs around Ireland. We provide accommodation in Dublin city centre for all participants to remove barriers to entry for those from outside of Dublin.

  • The 2026 summer programme will run from early July to mid August. (Grant applications are open all year round if you have a project you can’t wait to get started on!)

  • Thanks to generous donations from our partners and supporters, we have been able to cover the full program costs for all participants including accommodation and meals.

    We also offer stipends to make Patch accessible to candidates who could otherwise not participate due to lost wages, family care commitments, or other financial circumstances. Stipend decisions are made separately from decisions about program admission, so needing a stipend will in no way affect whether you are accepted to Patch.

  • Yes. We are focused on applicants who live in or are studying in Ireland.

    The community that persists after the summer programme is a really important part of Patch, and having an in person presence is the best way to maintain that.

Applications

  • You must be between the ages of 16 and 21 (this is a soft upper age range!) at the time of application and based in Ireland (born, living or studying). We generally look for young people who are enthusiastic about science, technology, design, entrepreneurship, or social impact.

  • The application process has two stages:

    1. All candidates complete a written application (see application doc to get a sense of the questions)

    2. Successful applicants are invited to a short online interview with a member of the Patch team

    We aim to respond to all applicants within two weeks of the application closing date and all interviewees within a week of the interview window.

    Applications for the 2026 programme will close in early March.

  • No. You’re welcome to apply to Patch with friends who want to work on the same idea, but each application should be submitted (and will be reviewed) independently.

  • No!

    Once the programme starts we will have people form teams and pick and idea together to work on for the summer. It is great to have a general idea on the area you’d like to work in but to stay open minded to collaborating with others on ideas too.

  • No, We support a wide range of projects, including (but not limited to) research, software/hardware/biotech projects, and social initiatives.

  • No. Many Patch participants have experience with coding, but we’re also looking for candidates who excel at design, science, building things, entrepreneurship, leadership, or generally seeing projects through from ideation to launch.

  • You can check out the 2025 application questions and apply directly here.

    At Patch, we look for people with a genuine passion for their interests and a track record of bringing their ideas to life. We're more interested in your initiative and accomplishments than your test scores. Tell us about projects you've worked on, problems you've solved, and what you've learned along the way. We value creativity, collaboration, and the ability to think critically.

    There are no right or wrong answers to any of our application questions. We value a diversity of opinions and experiences, and genuinely want to learn more about you. Feel free to share anything you're interested in or proud of, even if it's completely unrelated to what you want to work on at Patch.

    Also, everyone wants to appear modest, but please keep in mind that we're not going to find out about your unique interests and achievements unless you share them with us. Don't worry about "oversharing" or "showing off" — applications are one place where that's totally acceptable.

  • The 2024 cohort will include 30-40 people.

  • Yes, please do! We encourage applicants who are not accepted this year to continue working on their projects and honing their skills towards submitting a stronger application next year. Some of our most successful participants were accepted to the programme on their second or third application.

2026 Programme

  • At the start of each week, you’ll set goals for what you want to achieve and most of your time will be spent working on your project - building, planning or talking to mentors and users. Each week also includes group activities, workshops and talks from inspiring speakers.

    We update the schedule of workshops and speakers each year, but you can get a sense of a “typical” week at Patch from our 2023 schedule.

  • The 2026 programme will run from early July to mid August. You should be available to work with your team from 9am - 5pm on weekdays throughout that period.

    It’s fine if you need to miss an occasional event or day of activities - you should just let your team (and the Patch team) when you’ll be back.

  • While we don’t have fabrication facilities or lab equipment in Dogpatch Labs, we can arrange access to other facilities that have the equipment you need.

    We also allocate a budget to each hardware team to help access components. We can work with you to stay within that budget or help you identify sponsors for components that would otherwise blow your budget.

  • We typically run a few online events with the incoming cohort before Patch kicks off. These "pre-patch" sessions will give you a chance to get to know one another, meet our alumni community and learn about their Patch experience, and get to know the Patch team.

    The format will be 60 minute Google Meet calls on 2-3 weekday evenings during May and June. Attendance is completely optional, but past participants have said they enjoyed the sessions and appreciated the chance to get to know people before showing up in person.

  • Bootcamp is the first part of the programme. It’s a three day kick-off where you’ll meet your fellow participants and mentors, form teams and decide what you’re going to build over the next few weeks. It is mandatory to be available entirely for the 3 days of bootcamp due to its importance in forming teams and friendships within the cohort.

  • Patch Showcase is the grand finale of the summer programme. Teams present their projects and share what they learned with an audience of supporters, mentors and founders.

  • No. We’re a non-profit, focused on bringing talented people together to work on interesting problems.

    If you choose to form a company with your team after the summer programme ends, we can continue to support you with advice and connections. If you choose to work on something completely different, we’ll also support you in any way we can.

Accommodation, Food and Other Essentials

  • Free accommodation is provided for all participants !

  • We try to find student accommodation that's within easy reach of Dogpatch Labs. In 2025, participants stayed at Brickworks, which is a 25 minute commute to Dogpatch Labs.

  • No, you will have an ensuite room to yourself. Kitchen facilities will be shared.

  • We order lunch and dinner to be delivered to Dogpatch for participants every weekday. We try our best to ensure the food is varied and healthy however since we're ordering food in, the menus are a bit limited to food that travels well: sandwiches and salads for lunch / pizzas, burritos, curries etc. for dinner. We can of course carer to dietary requirements such as vegetarian, allergies or halal.

    Basic breakfast supplies (milk, bread, cereal, butter etc.) are also provided for each apartment at the start of each week.

  • Yes. We’ll send out a survey before the programme starts to learn about the dietary needs (and preferences) of each participant.

  • If you have a laptop, please bring it. If you don’t have a laptop, please let us know ahead of time so we can make sure you have access to one for the duration of the programme.

  • Yes!

  • We’d love to hear from you. Please email us at team@joinpatch.org.

Grants

  • We offer grants to 13-19 year olds based in Ireland who are working on early-stage projects and products.

    You can apply with any project idea, but we'll give priority to areas where MVP costs can be prohibitive (hardware, AI, etc.), products that address a clear market need, and/or ambitious projects addressing a major global challenge.

  • Complete and submit the application form. We aim to review all applications and respond by email within two weeks (with either a rejection or an invitation to a 15 minute call).

  • We're offering grants of up to €1,000.

    If you expect to need significantly more than that, please let us know when you apply— we're happy to work with you to identify cheaper components, discounted software, or additional funding sources.

  • We aim to pair each grantee with a mentor who has experience in their focus area (software, hardware, biotech etc.). Where that isn’t possible, we will match grantees with a strong mentor from another area and set up additional intros to help cover any domain-specific questions.

  • We're looking for candidates with genuine curiosity and interest in their project area, experience seeing previous projects through to completion, and an ambition to push beyond the limits of their previous work.

    You can apply with any project idea, but we'll give priority to areas where MVP costs can be prohibitive (hardware, AI, etc.), products that address a clear market need, and/or ambitious projects addressing a major global challenge.

  • Yes. The grant application primarily is based on the product/project you plan to work on.

  • Yes. If you are working on more than one project or product, you can apply for more than one grant.

  • Yes. We treat each grant application independently, so you can apply for a new project/product even if your previous application was rejected.