There is a rich landscape of research in Ireland which connects government policy to enterprise success with government departments and agencies such as the Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation (DBEI), Enterprise Ireland (EI), IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.
And Peter Smyth, Commercial Director, Tyndall National Institute, says this creates an ecosystem where early-stage research, conducted over many years, drives economic activity across many sectors of our economy – including energy & cleantech, medical technologies, information and communications and agri-food - to name a few.
“Working closely with key government agencies, Tyndall is at the heart of an ecosystem which drives the societal impact of deep-tech research,” he said.
“As our fundamental science leads to technology advances, Tyndall’s commercial teams work closely with our researchers, industry partners and with agencies such as Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to maximise the broad impact of our research.”
One of the most impactful outcomes is in the creation of new enterprises through spin outs. This combines research licensing (in partnership with UCC Innovation) with the best entrepreneurial talent drawn both from our own research and the wider entrepreneurship communities.
Tyndall’s most recent start-up, Varadis (pictured), flowed from many years of globally-leading research into radiation detection devices (which have been deployed on the International Space Station and used at one of the global centres of deep scientific research – CERN).
Brad Wrigley, CEO of Varadis,
Prof. William Scanlon, CEO of Tyndall.
And emerging from that core research, Varadis is now bringing these radiation detectors to new commercial applications in healthcare and security.
Similarly, Tyndall's photonics research into the fundamental science of materials and device structures, such as micro-LED light sources, spawned three spin outs and dynamic SMEs in Firecomms, Infiniled and SensL – all of whom went on to become global technology platforms through acquisition.
“And post-acquisition,” said Smyth, “these and other technologies continue to grow their economic footprint in Ireland and Tyndall continues to provide research talent and supports in some of the most disruptive global technologies.”
Source: Sunday Business Post June 9th 2020. Read the full article here.