Pictured left-right are Dr Padraic Conway, UCD Vice-President for University Relations; Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD; Dr Jimmy Devins TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, and Professor Mark Keane, UCD Vice-President for Innovation.
Dr Jimmy Devins TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation visited UCD this month to see how the supports provided by Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland are used to deliver facilities that are of real tangible benefit to businesses in their drive to increase competitiveness through innovation.
Minister Devins met with staff of NovaUCD, which supports innovation and technology transfer at UCD. Notable successes at Nova UCD include the development and licensing of a BSE test, which to date has generated €2 million in royalty income for UCD.
During the visit, UCD researchers briefed Minister Devins on key research areas ranging from ICT to biotechnology, all of which involve a strong multidisciplinary element, involving convergence of different disciplines.
Professor Paddy Nixon, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics, provided an overview of the TRIL Centre, a coordinated collection of research projects addressing the consequences of ageing. Bringing together Intel researchers with interdisciplinary researchers from other third level institutions, the TRIL Centre is one of the world's largest R&D collaborations on this important topic, and has made Ireland an international centre of excellence for this work.
Following his visit to UCD Minister Devins said: ''It is a fact that Ireland's overall economic performance remains healthy compared with many of our industrialised partners; however it must be recognised that Irish companies have been operating in an increasingly difficult global economic environment. To maintain our competitiveness in the face of these challenges, we must move our products and services up the value chain, by harnessing the outputs of our research investment in the last number of years.”
“This Government plays a vital role in this process of maintaining competitiveness. Investment in science and technology is now firmly embedded in Irish economic policy',' concluded Minister Devins.
Other presentations during the visit included a briefing on the CLARITY CSET from Professor Barry Smyth, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics; an overview of various functional food research projects from Professor Mike Gibney, UCD School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine; and an overview of the Biopharmaceutical and Clinical Research at the UCD Conway Institute provided by Institute Director, Janet Allen.
