Two NovaUCD Companies Shortlisted for Major Innovation Award

Two University College Dublin spin-out companies, Celtic Catalysts and Equinome, both headquartered at NovaUCD, have been shortlisted for the Irish Times/InterTradeIreland 2011 Innovation Awards.

Now in its second year, these Awards were established by the Irish Times and InterTradeIreland to acknowledge the people who drive innovation in their organisations, either indigenous or international companies (small, medium or large), who are operating throughout the island of Ireland to promote service, product or operational innovation. From over 100 entries, 21 companies have been shortlisted in 7 award categories.

Celtic Catalysts, an innovative venture capital backed life sciences company, has developed ground-breaking chemistry that enables its end-user clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech and fine chemicals industries to realise significant manufacturing cost savings.


Dr Brian Kelly, CEO & co-founder, Celtic Catalysts

Celtic Catalysts was co-founded in 2000 by Professor Declan Gilheany and Dr Brian Kelly as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Equinome, an equine genomics company, was established to assist the bloodstock industry to maximise the genetic potential of Thoroughbred horses. In 2010 Equinome launched the Equinome Speed Gene Test. This test can be used to predict the optimum racing distance for an individual Thoroughbred by analysing the DNA sequence of a gene related to muscle mass development.

Equinome_2010_Launch
Donal Ryan, MD and Dr Emmeline Hill, co-founder, Equinome

Equinome was co-founded in 2009 as a result of groundbreaking research led Dr Emmeline Hill in UCD’s School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, in partnership with Irish racehorse trainer Jim Bolger.

Celtic Catalysts and Equinome are both headquartered in NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.

Both companies have been shortlisted in the application of R&D category along with RealView Manufacturing.

Winners in each of the 7 award categories will be chosen by an independent panel of judges and announced at an awards ceremony on 2 March. An overall Innovation of the Year Award winner will also be chosen from among the category winners.

ENDS

28 January 2011

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, t: +353 1 716 3712.                

Editors Notes

NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research and for the development of co-operation with industry and business. NovaUCD as a purpose-built centre also nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises such as Celtic Catalysts and Equinome. NovaUCD has been funded through a unique public-private partnership that includes AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers, UCD and Xilinx.