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Research and Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock today announced details of 27 early stage researchers projects supported through the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation by Science Foundation Ireland. The respective projects have each displayed significant potential for the commercialisation of research and the funding is being provided under SFI’s Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) programme.

Commenting on the awards Minister Sherlock said:

Bringing research from the conceptual stage to the commercial stage is one of a number of pre-requisites for Ireland’s economic recovery.

Recipients of this TIDA funding have made compelling cases for their early-stage innovations, illustrating strong prospects for commercial benefit, either in introducing a new way of doing something or by improving on what is currently done. Driving this connection between research and industry is a continual imperative for Government, enterprise and the wider science community in Ireland.

The TIDA funding, totalling €1.6million, aims to realise a greater economic impact from investment in research. TIDA is run in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, with all award recipients working closely with Enterprise Ireland on key principles such as feasibility, awareness of commercialisation, prototype build, industrial processes and encouragement of multi-disciplinary convergence.

Some of the research being explored are in diverse areas such as inflammatory and immune diseases, breast cancer, bone grafts, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic pain treatment, mobile telecommunications, sensors, constraints programming and medical devices