Pictured (L-R): Nick Campbell, Professor of Phonetics and Speech Sciences, Trinity College; Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD; Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland

More than 2000 people from the world of business, science and research attended yesterday’s second annual Innovation Showcase at Convention Centre Dublin. Connecting industry with State supports, science and technology communities, the event was officially opened by Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD who also launched the updated Directory of Research Centres and Technology Centres.

A key feature of the Showcase was the Enterprise Ireland “Big Ideas” Session introduced by Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland. 12 promoters from investor-ready start-ups took to the centre stage to give a 2 minute pitch to investors with MC Paul Cunningham from RTE. Previous participants have secured significant investments following their “Big Ideas” presentations and have gone on to achieve global success. This was followed by 3 keynote industry speakers - Frank Wilson from Ceramicx, Julie Spillane from Accenture and Bill Kearney from IBM - who talked about how their companies have benefited from the use of innovation supports in growing their businesses.

Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD said: “Collaboration is the catalyst for successful innovation. We want to connect business with publicly funded researchers and the supports available to help entrepreneurs to grow their business and create jobs in Ireland. We want those who are new to research collaboration to explore all the options available to them and we want those who have existing connections within the research system to engage further and take advantage of all the supports available”.

Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland said: “The Big Ideas Session is an exciting illustration of the world-class research taking place in universities and institutes of technology in Ireland. The quality of new companies is very high, all of whom I am sure will be keen to secure investment and replicate the success of previous years’ participants including nearForm, OxyMem and SilverCloud Health who have gone on to achieve success internationally”.

Organised on behalf of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation by Enterprise Ireland and supported by IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, the aim of the Showcase is to achieve significant economic impacts through increased engagement between the public research system and industry. Also central to the Showcase is Knowledge Transfer Ireland who were on hand to demonstrate the range of resources that make it simple for industry to do business with Ireland’s research base.
This year’s Innovation Showcase hosted the launch of Innovation 2020, Ireland’s 5-year strategy for research and development, science and technology by the Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English TD, together with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD.

Innovation Showcase 2015 #InnovateIE Storify by Braithwaite Ireland

Enterprise Ireland backs 2020 R&D target

Innovation 2020 Full and Key Messages www.djei.ie/Djei/en/Publications/Innovation-2020.html