Enterprise Ireland’s Big Ideas Showcase at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, the largest gathering of inventors and investors in the country, this year introduced 19 inventions, developed by publicly-funded research, to more than 300 possible investors and business partners.

Among the ‘Big Ideas’ pitched to potential investors at the event were technologies capable of raising IQ, improving hygiene in hospitals, halving hot water bills, and reducing horse-breeding costs.

Minister for State for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, said: "The Government is striving to create the right environment where ideas can be identified, protected, and commercialised, leading to the creation of much-needed jobs for this economy.

"Since 2007, Enterprise Ireland has provided €30m under the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative to the third-level sector and this is having a real and tangible effect.

“This event is about turning publicly-funded research into companies, spin-outs, intellectual property and jobs. It’s about cultivating the investment by the taxpayer in our third level institutions, and harvesting the rewards”.

Greg Treston, Head of Research and Innovation at Enterprise Ireland, said: "The focus of the Big Ideas event is to get deals down between the inventors and investors during the 150+ one-to-one meetings that take place”.

The Minister also presented Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards to three individuals who earned the award by exhibiting a strong commitment to commercialisation, showing innovation in their approach to commercialisation and demonstrating success in commercialisation.

The Winners of the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Awards were:
Dr Alan Holland, ICT.
Professor Dolores O’Riordan, Lifescience.
Stephen Daniels, Manufacturing, Engineering and Energy.

More about the winners:

Dr Alan Holland: Winner of the Enterprise Ireland ICT commercialisation award:
Dr Alan Holland is receiving this award in recognition of his success in bringing his publicly funded research idea from University College Cork into business reality, through the start up company – Keelvar. The company has developed and launched ‘smart’ procurement software which can find substantial cost savings for public sector and other large clients.

Professor Dolores O’Riordan: Winner of the Enterprise Ireland Lifescience Commercialisation Award:
Professor Dolores O’Riordan, Deputy Director at UCD’s Institute of Food and Health, is receiving this award for her contribution to innovation in the food sector through collaboration with industry. She is Principal Investigator in the collaborative research centre Food for Health Ireland and has been instrumental in developing a new strategy for University College Dublin to facilitate establishing industry partnerships for food product development.

Stephen Daniels: Winner of the Enterprise Ireland Manufacturing, Engineering and Energy Commercialisation Award:
Stephen Daniels, Senior Lecturer in the School of Electronic Engineering at DCU, is receiving this award for his outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to commercialising research. Stephen has been instrumental in the formation of several technology businesses including Arann Healthcare Ltd, Qualflow Systems Ltd, Lexas Research and Sonex Metrology. As well as his post at DCU, Stephen leads a multidisciplinary research team in plasma technology and energy systems.