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Research & Innovation Minister Sean Sherlock today announced  Government funding via the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation of over €6.5million covering 58 research awards.

The investment is being made as part of Science Foundation Ireland’s Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) programme and will enable SFI-funded research groups to focus on the first steps of an applied research project which may have a commercial benefit if further developed.

Making the announcement at Dublin’s RDS, Minister Sherlock said:

The TIDA Programme focuses on the first stages of an applied research project. It provides financial support to research teams to enable them to get from concept to market.

There is a particular momentum at present in the drive to commercialise scientific research. This is at the core of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs 2012, announced last week: investment in research leading to jobs.

While today is an endorsement of research endeavours, it is also very much a call to action for all higher education institutions to get behind and support their researchers in every way possible towards facilitating the commercialisation of their research.

Read the full press release here.