Gearóid Mooney has been involved in developing collaboration between academia and industry for over ten years and it’s not been easy. While commonplace in Europe and the US for decades, these kinds of crossovers didn’t really become a thing in Ireland until this century. That meant there was some catching up to do, and Mooney has seen the area develop rapidly in his time on the job.

“There’s been so much change. Just getting to the point where we are happy we have the instruments in place to help on that side has taken a long time. It’s been a journey, we had no one to show us what to do. We felt our way along,” he said.

“Even in the early days there was impact. Companies were spinning out from colleges, just not in the quantity we wanted to see. Over the last seven years, the number of companies spinning out has been from one or two a year to 30 a year. It takes time to get to that point, it was the same in the US and Britain before us.

“The people coming in now are better prepared and more up for what is in store. The sophistication of the supports to help them along the way have come on as well. You need that industry influence in there while the research is going on, so it’s not just a case of ‘Let’s build the technology and see what happens’.”

The headlines with start-ups are made when big names come in to make a purchase or investment. Mooney said the role of smaller established firms goes unnoticed but is growing in importance. More Irish SMEs are seeing opportunities to collaborate with start-ups in order to fuel growth on both sides.

“The spin-outs are the part that people naturally focus on because they can see the new company and where it came from. The part that is going to be important going forward is the bang for buck coming from tech transfer with established companies. Over the last three years, we have seen more companies looking to build relationships where they see opportunities around a technology. We are putting in some investment to reduce the risk around that. We are finding that for every €1 the state puts in, it’s bringing back €7,” he said.

Mooney said this evolution came naturally with the sheer amount of time that had gone into developing cooperation between colleges and businesses. There’s still work to do in order to make the most of this more trusting environment.

“In some ways, it has got easier. More people have seen what is possible and what can be gained. The whole research space has grown to a more substantial size as well. If you go back ten or 15 years ago, it was tiny. The development of Science Foundation Ireland, the amount being spent, the number of new graduates being brought in, it has all had an influence and meant there is more to play with and develop,” said Mooney.

“The first thing a company needs to figure out is what it needs to do. That sounds trite, but if you are going into one of these centres, you need to contribute and create research. You’ve got to set the project up the way that works to fit the business environment you are looking at. You need to be clear about what you want from the beginning.”  


The full article appeared in the Sunday Business Post, read it here

Orla Battersby takes over as head of the High Per­formance Start-ups (HPSU) programme in Enterprise Ireland next month. That puts her squarely in a role of trying to develop this process. Balance is on her agenda too, trying to enhance the start-up environments outside Dublin without slowing down progress in the capital.

“The upside of setting up outside Dublin is the reduced cost while still accessing talent in third level institutions. The downside is potentially not attracting the same degree of skills, but that’s across the board in the US and Europe, it’s not just an Irish problem,” said Battersby.

“We are trying to get more accelerators into the region, to get people to help start-ups grow and in­cubate. We are confident of getting a good spread out there, we have seen from the call we have made to potential investors that there is interest out there.

“Of the 105 HPSUs last year, 58 were outside of Dublin. They are all on the same playing field when it comes to having to sell. Ireland is such a small market that they have to think about exports quickly. Whether they are in Dublin or not, they are all in that position early on.”

Battersby is leaving her current role heading up EI’s North American operation to take over the HPSU programme. She’s looking to take elements of what she has seen in that role to apply them to the problems facing new Irish businesses, although she is bullish on the overall health of the start-up sector.

“We have experience over here of Silicon Valley and we try and bring the best practices from there over to Ireland. When we bring Irish firms over there, it’s mainly an educational process. We don’t expect them to build out there and then. It’s an eye opener for them,” said Battersby.

“I want to see that education piece happening more in Ireland where VCs will meet the start-ups more in Ireland. There are people in the US who are willing and able to help our clients. I want to bring more of that knowledge and those advisors back into Ireland.

“We’re in one of the strongest places that we have ever been. There’s funding available beyond Enterprise Ireland for start-ups and the whole eco-system that we are part of building. Overall, it’s the strongest it’s been in many years.”

Having the perspective of seeing what Irish businesses have made inroads into North American markets, Battersby sees certain sectors where success stories are likely to emerge from in the near future.

“FinTech is an area where we are seeing a lot of growth, and in the US we have been able to introduce a lot of Irish start-ups in this space to larger businesses. We don’t tend to choose sectors but one that strikes me as having massive po­tential is the internet of things. That’s an area of massive opportunity for start-ups and we have several firms already doing well in that space,” said Battersby. 

The full article appeared in the Sunday Business Post, read it here