An innovative life science company, Nanosense, was last night declared the overall winner of this year’s NovaUCD entrepreneurship programme, the Campus Company Development Programme (CCDP). The guest speaker at the awards ceremony was Peter Conlon, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Xsil, who also presented the winners with their awards.  NovaUCD is the EUR 10 million Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre at University College Dublin.

Nanosense, whose founder is Dr Margaret Brennan, has developed a proprietary platform technology for user-friendly rapid diagnostics. This technology will be utilised by companies with clinical and industrial applications in infectious diseases, pathology markers, food safety, and agricultural and environmental testing.

The NovaUCD CCDP, which has run annually since 1996, is aimed at supporting the promoters of knowledge-intensive companies. The promoters of 16 innovative projects participated in this year’s programme, the highest number ever. This is indicative of an increasing interest in entrepreneurship and commercialisation of research on University campuses.  The NovaUCD CCDP initiative complements the Irish government’s policy of placing research and development and the exploitation of knowledge, at the heart of the country’s economic development strategy.

Participating companies on the CCDP are judged on the progress that they have achieved during the nine-month programme. Previous winners of the CCDP include AV Edge, ChangingWorlds, Optigen Technologies, ProfExcel and BiancaMed. Last year’s winner, Lightwave Technologies, an environmental technology company, raised EUR 300,000 in seed capital funding earlier this year and is now located in NovaUCD.

Dr Margaret Brennan, the founder of Nanosense, is based in Trinity College Dublin’s Physics Department. Nanosense, a nanotechnology company, has developed and patented a method to rapidly produce stable silver nanoparticles in a range of shapes and colours. The company’s first product using this technology will be an instant test for the screening of patient risk to cardio-vascular disease for the primary-care market. The test system has been designed for the point-of-care setting. It will deliver on the spot, quantifiable results using a simple to operate analyser and disposable sensing strip system.

Two other life science companies participating in this year’s progamme, Berand and PSPA, were short-listed for this year’s event and received runner-up awards. 

Berand has developed novel neurotherapeutics for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disease and provides specialist consultancy services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The lead promoters of Berand who participated on the CCDP are Dr Andrew Foley and Dr Sean Mulvany of UCD’s Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research. 

PSPA (Patient Specific Prosthesis Analysis) is developing software to simulate the long-term performance of medical implants in individual patients, thus providing enhanced surgical treatment and offering significant cost savings to healthcare providers. The lead promoters of PSPA are Dr John Britton and Dr Alex Lennon of Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Bioengineering. 

High-tech ventures are making an increasing contribution to sustaining Irish economic development.  It is recognised that many of the most innovative new ventures originate in university research.  The CCDP is an important support mechanism in the development of such ventures.  The objective of the CCDP, which is supported by Enterprise Ireland, is to assist the promoters of knowledge-intensive ventures to develop their business ideas through a series of workshops, consulting support, mentoring and practical business assignments over the nine-month duration of the programme. It is envisaged that the participants of this and future CCDPs will locate in NovaUCD. 

At the awards ceremony certificates were presented to the promoters of each company who completed this year’s programme. The next CCDP commences in Spring 2005 and applications are now being invited from prospective entrepreneurs developing new knowledge-intensive ventures.

 ENDS

19 November 2004

For further information contact Micéal Whelan, NovaUCD, e-mail: miceal.whelan@ucd.ie, tel: (01) 716 3712.

Editor's Notes

NovaUCD is University College Dublin’s EUR10 million Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre.  This purpose-built centre, nurtures new technology and knowledge-intensive enterprises.  NovaUCD has over 40 incubation units and provides innovators and entrepreneurs with the necessary support and knowledge to take their ideas from proof of principle to commercial success. 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.  NovaUCD is committed to working with the founding sponsors and other organisations such as F.R. Kelly & Co., to ensure the successful development of the NovaUCD business support programmes one element of which is the Campus Company Development Programme.

Peter Conlon is co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Xsil. Xsil is a world-leading provider of innovative laser micro-machining systems for high volume manufacturing in the semiconductor industry. Xsil won the Ernst & Young 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year – Industry Award as well as the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Rising Star Award.

The NovaUCD Campus Company Development Programme Award Trophy has been designed by Colm Brennan, Sculptor of CAST Bronze Foundry. The award consists of a black Kilkenny limestone arrow-head form pierced by three metal bars which radiate upwards from an imagined core. The bars carry the colour register analogous to 'gold’, 'silver and 'bronze'. The upward direction of the stone arrow-head is analogous with the drive or direction of a company while the three bars can be interpreted as flashes or streams brought to bear on a developing company.