NovaUCD’s 2011 Entrepreneurship Programme Launches with 13 New Ventures

Thirteen new high-tech and knowledge-intensive business ventures (profiled below) have joined NovaUCD’s 2011 entrepreneurship programme.

The NovaUCD 2011 Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP), which has just commenced, assists academic and research entrepreneurs at University College Dublin in bringing their innovative ideas from intellectual concepts to fully developed and sound commercial businesses. NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre, is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research programmes. 

Launch NovaUCD 2011 CCDP 
Some of the NovaUCD 2011 CCDP participants 

Now in its 16th year 170 new ventures and 260 individuals have to date completed this programme which is supported by Enterprise Ireland. Former participants include companies such as BiancaMed, Celtic Catalysts, Equinome, JLizard and RendezVu. 

The new ventures and individuals participating on this year's programme are commercialising research undertaken throughout the University, including research in the UCD Schools of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering, Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Business, Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Computer Science and Informatics, Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering along with Medicine and Medical Science. 

Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD said, “The CCDP is NovaUCD’s main enterprise support designed specifically to assist UCD academics and researchers in establishing new ventures to commercialise the innovative ideas arising from their research programmes.”  He added, “These ventures will in time generate new high-tech jobs and this aspect of the CCDP is of course critically important in the current economic climate.” 

The CCDP is a nine-month, part-time programme designed to suit the busy timetable of researchers and academics. It offers a mix of monthly workshops, mentoring and one-to-one consultancy. It is delivered by NovaUCD staff, with support from NovaUCD’s sponsors, Enterprise Ireland, as well as other outside experts. 

The CCDP is designed to assist the entrepreneurs by providing them with the skills necessary to transform their ideas into commercially feasible new ventures. Participants on the programme have the opportunity to access NovaUCD’s desk space and incubation facilities and associated innovation services. The programme culminates with a high profile Awards Evening which will be held in November.

This year a prize fund of €30,000 will be available to the 2011 CCDP award winners. In addition to cash prizes and 6-months free NovaUCD desk space, Arthur Cox and Deloitte will be providing professional services and AccountsIQ will be providing a free subscription to its accountancy software.

JLizard a new software development company was the overall winner of the NovaUCD 2010 CCDP. JLizard has developed a cloud-based product (www.logentries.com) to enable organisations to reduce the time required to analyse the log data of their IT systems from days to minutes. JLizard was established by Dr Trevor Parsons and Dr Viliam Holub as a spin-out company from the Performance Engineering Laboratory in UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics.

ENDS

24 March 2011

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

Editors Notes

New Ventures Participating on the 2011 CCDP

AntTweeter is developing a web-based question and answering service which utilises the power of Twitter to disseminate the questions and answers to a wide audience. The promoter is Dr Kevin McCarthy, CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Applied Process Consulting provides process engineering consulting services to the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. The promoters are Professor Brian Glennon and Dr Mark Barrett, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.

Entrepreneurshipnet.tv is developing entrepreneurship education resources and tools aimed at a global consumer base of entrepreneurs, academics, students, SMEs, venture capitalists along with public and private libraries. The promoter is Dr Rory O’Shea, UCD Quinn School of Business.

Equilume is developing a light mask which provides individual light therapy to horses in order to advance the active period of a mare’s reproductive cycle. This facilitates the requirements of breeders to have foals born earlier in the year. The promoters are Dr Barbara Murphy and Caroline Walsh, UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine.

Fairtricity is developing a software application to provide a fair electricity bill splitting method for users in shared living environments. The promoters are Dr Seamus Rooney and Dr Antonio Ruzzelli, CLARITY Centre for Sensor Web Technologies, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.

ForkStream is developing a solution for telecom operators to allow mobile users to roam seamlessly between different mobile providers while using bandwidth heavy services.  The promoters are Dr John Fitzpatrick and Dr Hamid Nafaa, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Mobifit Technologies is developing a device and associated software for monitoring exercise activity, providing qualitative and quantitative feedback of a user’s exercise performance. The promoters are Ken Taylor, Dr Chris Bleakley and Professor Scott Rickard, Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Molecule Anti-Angiogenics has identified novel anti-angiogenic molecules that can be used as drugs to inhibit the formation of unwanted blood vessels which has been associated with ophthalmic diseases and cancer. The promoters are Dr Breandan Kennedy, Dr Alison Reynolds, Adrian Murphy and Jacintha O’Sullivan, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.

miRFUNCTION is developing microRNA protein targets to manipulate cell death in drug resistant cancer cells. The promoter is Dr Fiona Furlong, UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science.

Novel Energy Absorption Mechanism is developing a product with a novel energy absorption mechanism which allows for impact energy dissipation in more than one direction which has multiple applications including crash helmet design. The promoters are Dr Manuel Forero Rueda and Professor Michael Gilchrist, UCD School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering.

Ovine Genetics aims to provide a commercial sheep semen collection and storage centre for pedigree and commercial sheep farmers in order to assist them in maximising the sheep breeding process. The promoters are Dr Alan Fahey and Pat Duffy, UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine.

Scream Interactive is developing novel speech technologies for the interactive entertainment industry. The promoter is Dr Peter Cahill, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Sustainability in Historic Buildings is developing energy simulation software for the analysis of the energy performance of historic buildings. This solution will allow historic buildings to adhere to energy conservation demands while maintaining their artistic, historic and cultural value. The promoter is Florence Timothy-Afolayan, UCD School of Architecture, Landscape and Civil Engineering.

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. 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. 

The NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP) is a nine-month, part-time programme designed to suit the busy timetable of researchers and academics. It offers a mix of monthly workshops, mentoring and one-to-one consultancy and is delivered by NovaUCD staff, with support from the NovaUCD sponsors, Enterprise Ireland, as well as other outside experts. It is designed to assist academic entrepreneurs in the establishment and development of knowledge-intensive enterprises by providing the skills necessary to transform their ideas into commercially feasible ventures via the development of a business plan.