The government has announced plans to make €26.75 million available for the Enterprise Ireland Technology Gateway Network over the next five years.
Since its formation in 2013, the Technology Gateway Network has completed more than 2,750 projects with more than 1,250 Irish based companies.
Projects range from polymers to pharmaceuticals, photonics to mobile services and mechatronics, through to biotechnology and industrial design.
The network consists of 15 individual ‘gateways’ hosted by an Institute of Technology, spread across the country providing industry with access to over 300 highly skilled and industrially focused researchers, together with specialist equipment and facilities.
Today’s announcement was made at a showcase event in Dublin attended by 100 industry representatives where the establishment of a new food and beverage technology cluster – Irish Food Tech – within the network was also announced.
Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research & Development John Halligan said: “The Technology Gateway Network programme aims to bring Irish companies together with the researchers in the Institutes of Technology to provide near-to-market innovation and solutions in a range of areas, both regionally and nationally.
“Today I’m also delighted to announce the establishment of a new food and beverage technology-focused cluster within the Gateway Network called Irish Food Tech. As with the other two sectoral clusters in the network, Applied IoT and EMD Ireland, the aim of Irish Food Tech is to optimise the power of the Network and connect industry with researchers in a wide selection of areas that include bioprocessing, food for health, process control and packaging”.
Gearoid Mooney, manager, research & innovation, Enterprise Ireland, added: “The Enterprise Ireland Technology Gateway Network offers an open access point for industry providing technology expertise which is industry relevant. Projects range from small starts-up in the regions making use of the Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Voucher Scheme, to larger companies using the Innovation Partnership Programme.
“However, the most common mechanism by which companies engage via the Gateways is through projects they pay for completely themselves without leveraging any state funding.
“This is a testament to both the trust built up between the companies and the Gateways, and the capability of the research community in the Institutes of Technology.”
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