A new gateway launched by Trinity College Dublin in conjunction with Ibec to help companies to scale and create jobs by making it easier to partner on research activities.
Part of Trinity’s strategy for innovation and entrepreneurship, the Office for Corporate Partnership and Knowledge Exchange will encompass the offices of research, contract, technology transfer, and industry engagement, as well as provide entrepreneurship supports.
The new office will support industry in getting involved in Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. It will help businesses to access cutting-edge infrastructure and researchers, supporting all research projects from first steps to large-scale collaborations. That will develop business innovation, linked to more exports and jobs.
“Our new approach is based on ‘open innovation’,” said the director of Trinity Research and Innovation Dr Diarmuid O’Brien. “We want to work with companies, large and small, to improve their competitiveness. Companies that are research-active are creating jobs and exports. Trinity is Ireland’s leading research institution, and we want to partner with companies to enable them to scale.”
The Office of Corporate Partnership and Knowledge Exchange will be supported by business leaders serving on a knowledge transfer and innovation committee. This committee will reinforce the office’s enterprise-facing mission, and advocate for Trinity in the enterprise community. Among the business leaders on the committee are Steve Collins, founder of Havoc and Swrve and Eoin O’Sullivan, director of the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy at the University of Cambridge.
Danny McCoy, Ibec CEO, said: “Ireland needs a business environment that promotes innovation, enterprise and entrepreneurship. Trinity’s new office will make it easier for companies to partner with a world-leading university to scale globally. Enhancing links between business and higher education is key to Ireland’s economic recovery. Research and development helps increase our exports, and attract new investment.”
In the past five years, Trinity has signed 450 contracts with industry and produced 38 spin-out companies.
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