The Rubicon Centre is Ireland's premier Business Incubation Centre and is located on campus in the Cork Institute of Technology. Home to 50 knowledge based start-up companies, the Centre is jointly financed by CIT & Enterprise Ireland. Clients based at the Rubicon are at different stages of development, from concept stage to completing their first customer orders and many are already trading on the International Market. As an innovation centre for entrepreneurs, the Rubicon Centre is here to help, encourage & give support to people who present a unique idea or highlight a market niche which they believe they can target. In July 2010 the Rubicon increased its Capacity by an additional 910m2, which included new laboratory spaces. This extension brings the total incubation footprint to over 3,000m2. The Centre continues to invest in its IT Infrastructure to afford Companies access to their customers and partners world-wide. Clients enjoy access to a full development path and several have participated in one of the many Programmes on offer in the Centre, including Genesis Enterprise, PINC, EnterpriseSTART and the Discovery Zone programmes. Companies based here will use the R&D capabilities of CIT and the commercial supports and help from agencies based in the South-West Region. In essence, the Centre's role as an incubator is to assist the formation and growth of early stage, knowledge intensive businesses.