Minister Lenihan launches drive to match researchers with investors

20 October, 2010

The Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan TD, today [Wednesday] launched a new drive to match researchers with investors.

Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas Showcase allows 18 researchers to pitch exciting new technologies to over 200 potential investors and partners.

Minister Lenihan said the initiative was an opportunity for researchers to turn their work into commercial products and generate new companies and jobs.

All of the technologies were developed from state-funded research in higher education institutes.

The focus of the event is on securing investment and business partners to bring these projects to the next stage in commercialisation.

The event will see over 100 one-to-one meetings between the inventors and the potential investors to explore the options to either licence these new technologies or use them as the basis to form new companies in the energy, life sciences, medical engineering and IT sectors.

The Big Ideas Showcase is part of the Government’s and Enterprise Ireland’s strategy to commercialise publicly funded research.

Minister Lenihan said: ‘Over the past decade the Government and Enterprise Ireland have continued to increase investment and support for nurturing the commercial potential of research and IP developed in Ireland’s higher education institutions.

‘This investment is paying off. During this period over 900 researchers in higher education institutes have received commercialisation funding to prove and develop the commercial potential of their research.

‘To date, over 140 new companies have been formed from this research, with 63 of these in the last three years alone.

‘Together, these companies have a turnover of over €160 million and employ over 1000 people.

‘The Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI) set up by Enterprise Ireland in 2007 has played a major part in increasing the level of research commercialisation activity right across the third level sector.

‘All of Ireland’s higher education institutions are part of this €30million, five year initiative. Working with the Technology Transfer offices in the colleges, Enterprise Ireland is developing a world-class system for transferring valuable intellectual property from research into industry, and creating jobs, he said.’

Minister Lenihan also presented the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards at the event. These awards are presented to researchers and partners who have successfully commercialised their research.

This year, the awards went to

Astryne Limited, a DCU spin out company that manufactures liquid filters for VARs like Siemens, Veolia, Mahle, and Heun;
the Centre for Digital Video Processing (CDVP) in DCU, who partnered with entrepreneur Pat Flynn of Fairview Analytics to commercialise their digital processing technology for use in vehicle traffic analysis at seaport, land border crossings and Urban Congestion Zones; and
Solvotrin Therapeutics, a Trinity College Dublin spinout company working to deliver new innovative drugs to the cardiovascular market. This includes Solvotrin’s bio-activated aspirin, which provides similar therapeutic benefits to regular aspirin but without some of the potentially harmful side effects.

ENDS

For further information contact: Enterprise Ireland: Eileen Banks, Press Officer

Tel: +353 (0)1 7272805/087 2445814 E-mail:

eileen.banks@enterprise-ireland.com

Notes to the Editor:

Winners of the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards:

Astryne Limited, spin out from DCU

Astryne Limited is a filter manufacturer producing and developing high performance regenerative micro-filters and solutions. This start-up company is led by Wolfgang Laub and Colm McMahon and is based in Balbriggan. Wolfgang has an engineering background and many years experience in the filtration business. Colm has a background in process engineering at Intel and micro-fluidic processing at DCU.

The company have developed a new technology to produce a new type of regenerative filters on CD production lines resulting in a huge range of applications:

Metal machining, especially wire-EDM where a clear gap in the market exists
Drinking water, especially pre-filtration for reverse osmosis systems
Power plants, especially condensed turbine-water
Ballast water (ships)
Industrial washing machine effluent (high growth market)
Food & Drug - significant range of applications from juice to beer
Semiconductor industries
Galvanic industries etc.
Pharma / Medical

Astryne’s filters are extremely robust, have very low energy consumption, and are easily maintained, making them highly competitive in a market place where many current filtration products have very high operating costs. Across industry, there is a strong trend towards increased productivity and environmentally friendly operations and a shift away from disposal of materials. Automatic, fully regenerative filters represent the key technology enabling this, and Astryne’s products directly address this market need.

Centre for Digital Video Processing (CDVP) in DCU and Fairview Analytics:

This project grew out of Enterprise Ireland funded research at the Centre for Digital Video Processing (CDVP) in DCU that looked at advanced digital processing techniques of streamed media content. At the 2008 Big Ideas event the team were linked with entrepreneur Pat Flynn, who recognised the commercial potential of the research. Pat and the DCU team worked collaboratively developing a commercial concept for vehicle traffic analysis in seaports and land border crossings.

Pat’s company Fairview Analytics has now licensed the technology from DCU. Though an Innovation Partnership they have developed and deployed the InSPeCT Sea Port Container Traffic system and continue to collaborate with DCU on its development.

The InSPeCT System (Integrated Surveillance for Port Container Traffic), uses CCTV cameras and vehicle monitoring cameras to record and analyse vehicle traffic that pass through the sea / land border crossings and Urban congestion Zones. This vehicle information then enables Seaports / Customs/ Urban authorities to Automate Access or Enforce Vehicle Access Restrictions.

The system is currently being further developed by DCU and is deployed at Rosslare Europort in co-operation with Iarnród Éireann to monitor truck and container traffic entering and leaving the seaport. The system is also being marketed and sold to seaports in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Solvotrin Therapeutics, Trinity College Dublin

Solvotrin Therapeutics, a Trinity College Dublin spinout based on research by Dr John Gilmer’s team, was founded in 2009 by entrepreneur Pat O’Flynn and Dr. Mark Ledwidge, with support from Enterprise Ireland. The company is developing innovative new drugs for the large cardiovascular markets of antiplatelet therapy and dyslipidaemia. Since inception Solvotrin has made outstanding progress in accelerating the path to market for the lead compounds initially developed in TCD.

Solvotrin’s lead cardiovascular compound, ST0701, is a bio-activated compound which provides optimal aspirin release directly into the bloodstream, without the direct gastrointestinal side effects associated with regular aspirin. This is a breakthrough advance in aspirin based treatment of cardiovascular disease.Solvotrin protects the gastrointestinal tract from the harmful effects of aspirin because the drug is not activated until it passes out of the gut and into the bloodstream. ST-0701 will complete Phase I testing in 2011.

Another of Solvotrin’s “super aspirins” is ST0702, which is a bio-activated compound releasing both aspirin and nicotinic acid which will confer additional benefits to current treatments for dyslipidaemia. ST0702 is undergoing pre-clinical development and Phase 1 testing is expected to be completed in 2012.

ENDS

Last modified: 20/10/2010

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