University College Dublin’s 2025 Innovation Awardees Announced by NovaUCD
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The recipients of University College Dublin’s (UCD) 2025 innovation awards, which highlight successes made in areas of knowledge transfer, consultancy, entrepreneurship and the promotion of an innovation culture, by members of the UCD research, innovation and entrepreneurial community, have been announced today by NovaUCD.
A total of 7 Awards, including the main 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Award, were presented by Professor Orla Feely, President, UCD during an event held in the UCD University Club.
Speaking at the event Professor Orla Feely, UCD, President, said, “UCD is committed to delivering impact from our leading research and innovation across a broad range of disciplines. The NovaUCD Innovation Awards, which have become a key annual event, recognise the achievements of our research, innovation and entrepreneurial communities and demonstrate our strength in developing talent and creating and applying knowledge to deliver impact.
I congratulate all who have received this year’s Awards and wish the Awardees every future success as they continue to deliver impact in Ireland and further afield through their commercialisation, consultancy, entrepreneurial and innovation activities."
2025 NovaUCD Innovation Award
The 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Award, which recognises excellence in innovation or of successes achieved in the commercialisation of UCD research, or other intellectual activity, over a number of years, was awarded to Professor Wenxin Wang.
Professor Wang is a leading skin and wound healing research expert, and a Research Ireland Principal Investigator at the UCD Charles Institute of Dermatology, UCD School of Medicine. His academic and research expertise is focused on areas of biomaterials, stem cell and gene therapy for the treatments of skin wounds, cartilage/bone regeneration, including dental tissue regeneration.
Professor Wang’s intellectual property portfolio includes 12 invention disclosures to NovaUCD, being a named inventor on 30+ patents during his career, and launching and commercialising multiple developed technologies onto the market.
He is also a serial entrepreneur and the founder of three start-up companies, including Vornia, which was acquired by Ashland in 2018, Bláfar, and Branca Bunús a UCD spin-out biotech company which he founded in 2019. Branca Bunús is focused on developing and commercialising polymer-based gene therapies for patients suffering from genetic disorders.
He has also developed strong links with industry partners, which includes collaborating with Amryt Pharma, Curran Scientific Ltd and DEBRA Ireland on an €8+ million DTIF funded project focused on the development of a disruptive gene therapy platform to replace viruses in the treatment of genetic conditions, such EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa).
On receiving the 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Award, Professor Wenxin Wang, said, “I am delighted to receive this Award from NovaUCD as my dream and passion is always within innovation and scientific discovery, using my talents with an ultimate goal of translating my scientific discovery into real-world applications to benefit humankind. In the years ahead I will keep pursuing this life mission of mine.”
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Award.
2025 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award
The recipients of the 2025 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award are, Dr Emer Doheny, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Dr Jayne Carberry, UCD School of Medicine.
They received the Award for a novel medical device, which they have developed and designed, that allows for the measurement and training of individual oropharyngeal muscles using a moveable oral sensor.
Their invention, which has been patented, has many potential clinical applications to address medical conditions, such as dysphagia, or difficulties in swallowing, associated with neurodegenerative disease, and respiratory sleep disorders including obstructive sleep apnoea.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award.
2025 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award
Professor Peter Kennedy, a Professor of Microelectronic Engineering at the UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, was named recipient of the 2025 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award.
Two of the patents of which Professor Kennedy is a named inventor relate to novel methods to address the erratic and unwanted time-varying spectral components, known colloquially as ‘wandering spurs’, in the spectrum of frequency synthesisers.
Frequency synthesisers are critical components in modern RF (radio frequency) communication systems. Reduction in wandering spurs is critical for high-precision RF applications such as high-frequency sensing/sensors, 5G and next-generation wireless communications networks and high-precision test and measurement equipment.
One of the patents relates to research carried out by Professor Kennedy and his team at UCD and the other patent relates to earlier work carried out while he was at University College Cork (UCC).
UCD and UCC jointly licensed the patents to Analog Devices following a collaboration between UCD and the company which successfully validated the patented methods in industrial frequency synthesisers.
The technology was subsequently implemented in an Analog Device product released during 2024 and the licensing of this technology will lead to the payment of licensing income to UCD and to UCC.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award.
2025 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award
LaNua Medical has been named the recipient of the 2025 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award.
LaNua Medical is developing a groundbreaking medical device designed to make minimally invasive, x-ray guided, endovascular treatment of numerous conditions including internal bleeding, vascular malformations and many benign and malignant tumours safe and effective.
This should make procedures quicker and more straightforward for operators, providing a cost-effective solution for healthcare systems and lead to consistent outcomes for patients.
The company was co-founded in 2024 by Dr Cormac Farrelly, UCD School of Medicine, Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill and Sajjad Amiri, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering along with Tom Fitzmaurice, formerly a Vice-President at Medtronic, following the completion of an Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund research project at the University.
During 2024 LaNua Medical closed a €6 million seed funding round, co-led by Elkstone and Atlantic Bridge, with participation from Enterprise Ireland and Furthr VC, to accelerate product development, gain entry into the US market and hire staff in roles across R&D and Quality. The company also established offices at NovaUCD and in Galway.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award.
2025 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award
The recipient of the 2025 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award is Dr Siobhan Mullan, Chair in Animal Welfare and Veterinary Ethics at the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine.
A veterinary surgeon, Dr Mullan previously worked in mixed and companion animal practice but has now transitioned away from clinical work to focus on research and teaching to deliver large scale, long-term impactful improvements in animal welfare.
Since joining UCD in 2021 she has undertaken several consultancy projects, through ConsultUCD, and transferred her expertise to deliver long-term impactful improvements in animal welfare to clients in Ireland, Australia, the UK, Thailand, Indonesia, France and North America.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award.
2025 NovaUCD CEO of the Year Award
The recipient of the 2025 NovaUCD CEO of the Year Award is Mike McGearty, co-founder and CEO of Meili, a travel tech company headquartered at NexusUCD. The company which he co-founded in 2021 with Bobby Healy builds technology that enables car rental companies to integrate and partner directly with airlines and travel brands, delivering a friction-free traveller experience.
Since Meili was established, it has scaled rapidly and has already secured nearly 40 partnerships with major global players, including; FreeNow, SAS Airlines, Lufthansa, TravelStart, FrenchBee and Daa. The company is currently onboarding on average one new partner per month.
During 2024 the company, which currently has a staff of 40+ people, raised €8.1 million in a Series A extension funding round, to fuel the company’s growth, to strengthen its existing partnerships, and to drive the development of new products. Schooner and Tribal led a similar raise in 2023 and Meili has now secured over €20 million in funding.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD CEO of the Year Award.
2025 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award
The recipient of the 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award is Professor Kevin O’Connor, Director of BiOrbic, the Research Ireland Centre for Bioeconomy, a Principal Investigator at the UCD Earth Institute and a Full Professor in the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.
Through his research activities, Professor O’Connor has, over many years, been championing the development of a sustainable global economy. His research expertise includes a focus on circular economy, circular bioeconomy, and biotechnology including, integrated biorefining, biobased chemicals, microbial biotechnology, biodegradable polymers, biocatalysis and protein engineering.
He is also a champion in promoting an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem within his School and College by actively involving members of his research and postdoc teams in his invention disclosures, patent applications, many of which have been subsequently licensed to industry, and through his commercialisation funded projects.
In addition, he has been championing innovation through his leadership roles in shaping Ireland’s bioeconomy research landscape as Director of BioOrbic, as Principal Investigator with Farm Zero C, a collaboration between Carbery and BiOrbic’s research partners to create a climate-neutral nature positive, economically viable dairy farm, and as the lead in the development of pilot-scale facilities at the Bioeconomy campus in Lisheen, Co. Tipperary.
In addition, he has disclosed 16 inventions to NovaUCD, 7 patents have been filed, 7 licences concluded with industry, and he has co-founded two UCD spin-out companies, Bioplastech and Nova Mentis.
Click here to find out more about the 2025 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award.
NovaUCD is supported under the KT Boost Programme co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union, through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027.
ENDS
10 April 2025
For more informationcontact Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, UCD Research and Innovation, e:(opens in a new window)miceal.whelan@ucd.ie.