Winners of Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards 2019 announced

Winners awarded across five categories of knowledge transfer activity
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Guest speaker Clare Dillon and KTI Director Dr Alison Campbell. Credit: maxwellphotography.ie

22 November 2019

The winners of the Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards 2019 have been announced. The awards recognise the achievements in the successful commercialisation of publicly funded research for the benefit of the Irish economy and society.

Knowledge Transfer Ireland helps bring business and research together to maximise the economic potential of innovative technologies, ideas and expertise.

Winners

University College Dublin (UCD) and Glanbia took home the Collaborative Research Impact Award. The collaboration led to the establishment of a Tipperary facility to transform dairy waste products into high value bio-based products including biodegradable plastics, bio-based fertilizers and minerals for human nutrition.

The Consultancy Impact Award went to University College Cork and Abbott Nutrition Ireland for their improvements to the manufacturing process of its infant milk formula and the product itself.

UCD also received the Licence2Market Impact Award for its collaboration with Atlantic Therapeutics for the licensing of an externally worn electrical muscle stimulator to treat stress urinary incontinence.

The Spin-Out Company Award went to Nova Leah, a cyber-security firm which was spun out of Dundalk Institute of Technology and provides platform and software tools primarily to the medical device sector.

The Knowledge Transfer Achiever of the Year Award was jointly presented to Fiona Neary, innovation operations manager and bioexel accelerator commercial lead at NUI Galway and Anthony Morrissey, commercialisation case manager at University College Cork.

Anu Sahni, Lecturer in Computing & Technology Transfer Case Manager, received special commendation for her contribution to knowledge transfer at the National College of Ireland.

KTI director and chair of the judging panel Dr Alison Campbell said; “The EU’s Innovation Scoreboard classifies Ireland as a “Strong Innovator” with our performance ranking favourably among our EU peers. Tonight’s awards recognise and pay tribute to the work of those on the ground nationwide in Ireland’s Technology Transfer Offices who actually make this innovation happen, acting as a vital link between industry and academia. They provide the information to companies, support and manage the processes that allow commercialisation and collaboration to flourish, freeing up researchers and businesses to get on with the business of innovating.”

All shortlisted entries were evaluated by a panel of international experts including; Maxine Ficarra, CEO at PraxisAuril; Holly Wales Meadows, AUTM; Eavan O’Brien, Irish Research Council.

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