Innovation Culture Spreads Nationwide – Minister Michael Ahern

"Use Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Vouchers to Grow Your Business" Minister Tells Small Companies

Applications from small firms seeking solutions to their knowledge questions are now being sought for the third round of Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Vouchers initiative.

To date over 350 small companies across the State have been given Innovation Vouchers which provide €5,000 worth of funding to access the expertise in third level knowledge providers to help companies address challenges in their specific development.

The programme which has been running for six months now has 22 knowledge providers offering their research, technical and business expertise to companies across the country.

These Knowledge Providers are primarily institutes of technology and universities and a number of public research bodies.

Michael Ahern T.D, Minister for Innovation Policy announced the opening of round 3 of Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Voucher initiative in Dublin today 1st October 2007.

Making the announcement Minister Ahern said;

"Building productive relationships between companies and the third level institutions in their region is a critical strand of the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation. Enterprise Ireland is the interface between these two communities and is in the best position to develop collaborative linkages".

Many of the Innovation Vouchers that were awarded in earlier rounds are about to be cashed in as knowledge projects around the country near completion.

A typical project can be completed in two weeks. One recently completed project was delivered by a research group based at Waterford IT for a busy local admin services company that had worked its existing telephone system to full capacity. Collins Administration Services asked the TSSG research team at Waterford IT to help them access new technologies that will scale with their business, removing a legacy solution that was proving to be a key growth inhibitor for them. The research team were able to leverage knowledge that was generated during earlier research to the benefit of local business, while also raising the profile of the research team amongst the local business community.

Reflecting the higher concentration of companies based in Ireland’s cities, the counties with the highest participation rates to date are Dublin, Cork and Galway. "These areas are well served by third level research institutes and other public research bodies which is very encouraging from an industry-research collaboration perspective" said Minister Ahern.

He continued "I am very encouraged by the strong level of activity in counties Waterford, Tipperary, Kerry and Donegal. Our institutes of technology and universities have a vast amount of knowledge to offer companies outside the main cities and I am calling on every small company across the country to apply for a voucher and use it to learn about the potential in Ireland’s research community and what it can do for your business".

ENDS/IP9