€1m investment in Dublin Innovation Lab


11 Dec 2007

Some €1m has been invested in establishing a new Innovation Laboratory at the Synergy Centre at the Institute of Technology in Tallaght.

The Innovation Laboratory at Synergy Centre is being divided into two areas. One will be used for ICT, engineering and computer science, while the second will be used for laboratory science.

The entire facility will be capable of running 10 to 15 projects at any one time.

The first project to be located in the Innovation Laboratory is an Enterprise Ireland-funded Innovation Partnership between Global Security Devices and ITT Dublin and is focused on the area of wireless communications.

The academic research skills within the Institute of Technology in Tallaght will be combined with the experience of the Institutes Industry Liaison office in terms of enterprise development, management of innovation partnerships and technology transfer to offer a complete innovation and commercialisation service to industry.

New technologies will be developed, evaluated and, if they are successful, secured through intellectual property protection allowing them to be taken from the laboratory to the marketplace.

Pat O’Donnell, industrial liaison manager at the Institute of Technology in Tallaght, says he is looking forward to working with a range of high-tech companies in Ireland that have technology transfer needs.

“Our new Innovation Laboratory facility is available to engage in collaborative projects with industry on a wide range of research projects,” O’Donnell said.

“These opportunities leverage the resources of each party sometimes with Government support,” O’Donnell added.

“Technology transfer is a key element of bringing any new technology from the research bench to the commercial sector and we have many capability areas in which we can partner with industry to solve any R&D issues they may have.”

By John Kennedy