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
