Posted 12 May 2009
16 new ventures begin NovaUCD enterprise support programme
Sixteen new high-tech and knowledge-intensive business ventures, involving 35 researchers, have started the NovaUCD Enterprise Support Programme for 2009. The scheme helps UCD academic entrepreneurs to bring their innovative ideas from intellectual concepts to fully-developed and sound commercial business enterprises.
The range of disciplines represented in this year’s programme include: Agriculture, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Education, Engineering, Physics and Veterinary Medicine.
“This is our main enterprise support programme. The Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP) is designed to assist academic entrepreneurs in establishing new high-tech and knowledge intensive ventures to commercialise the innovative ideas arising from research conducted at UCD,” says Dr Pat Frain, Director, NovaUCD.
“New ventures of this kind are of critical importance, they form the backbone of the Government’s vision for Ireland’s economic future and the building of a Smart Economy.”
Over 140 ventures and 210 individuals have completed the NovaUCD enterprise programme since it was first established with the support of Enterprise Ireland fourteen years ago. BiancaMed, Celtic Catalysts, ChangingWorlds, CRDS, Haptica, TopChem and the other former participants now collectively employ over 750 people.
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 the NovaUCD sponsors, Enterprise Ireland, as well as other outside experts.
NovaUCD is responsible for the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD research programmes. It provides entrepreneurs and knowledge-based start-up companies with a comprehensive business support programme, including the CCDP, and incubation facilities.
New ventures participating on the 2009 programme include:
Agri-Time: Developing real-time data, information and decision support tools for time critical applications on farms. The promoter is Professor Nick Holden, UCD School of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine.
Inviver: Exploiting research on infectious disease to develop diagnostics and vaccines. The promoters are Dr Jarlath Nally and Pablo Rojas, UCD School of Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Medicine.
Peat Distill: Developing a suite of software packages for the biomolecular, pharmaceutical and protein engineering industry. The promoters are Dr Jens Erik Nielsen and Dr Gianluca Pollastri, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.
TraceHunter: Developing forensic software providing comprehensive information about user activities to forensic investigators. The main promoter is Dr Pavel Gladyshev, UCD School of Computer Science and Informatics.
