Dec 5, 2022

Teagasc secures award for research partnership December 5, 2022 12:23 pm Pictured at the 2022 Knowledge Transfer Ireland Impact Awards are Kathriona Devereux, MC; Joe Healy, divisional manager for research and innovation at Enterprise Ireland; and Imelda Lambkin, manager, Knowledge Transfer Ireland. A research collaboration involving Teagasc , Independent Milk Laboratories (IML), FBA Laboratories, and Kerry Group (Agribusiness) has won an award at the prestigious Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) Impact Awards. KTI is the Irish body that helps connect businesses of all sizes to publicly funded research opportunities. The KTI Impact Awards celebrate the work of the Higher Education Innovation Offices around the country, and their role in helping transform academic research into commercial impact. Teagasc award Teagasc, Independent Milk Laboratories, FBA Laboratories and Kerry Group secured the Industry Engagement Award, for a research partnership through which, industry consulted with Teagasc in relation to specialist expertise and testing for chlorate residues. These residues present potential health concerns for infants, that could have a negative bearing on Irish infant formula exports currently worth €1 billion annually. Advertisement As the sole Irish provider of accredited chlorate testing, Teagasc worked with the companies to establish new analytical laboratories and provided bespoke training to staff in operation of equipment, test methods and data analysis. This has resulted in significant increased testing capacity for Kerry Group, FBA and IML with the two latter companies having collectively tested 800,000 samples and exceeded €1 million revenue. Minister of State for trade promotion, digital and company regulation, Dara Calleary said: “Congratulations to all the winners on what is further evidence of a thriving ecosystem of collaboration between industry and publicly funded research. “With solutions to address immediate health, social and environmental concerns it is very welcome to see both revenue and job creation as a result of public-funded research commercialisation and collaboration. “Companies that are active in research, development and innovation are shown to perform better than their peers, and I would encourage businesses to consider collaboration with public research as a means to enhance their offering,” he added. Advertisement Declan O’Mahoney, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Tyndall National Institute; Elaine Berkery, director at Eastway Tech; Almesha Campbell, assistant vice president for research and economic development at Jackson State University; Tim Conlon, head of policy and strategic planning, international programmes and gender equality at the Higher Education Authority (HEA); Christophe Haunold, head of Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer Office at the University of Luxembourg; Sue Sundstrom, director of the Praxis Auril Fundamentals of Technology Transfer program in the UK. Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and SilverCloud Health scooped the Commercialisation Impact Award, for success achieved by a spin-out company from the university. SilverCloud Health Ltd. spun out from TCD in in 2012 having developed a system that helps patients suffering with mental health conditions. University College Dublin and PlasmaBound won this year’s Future Forward Award. PlasmaBound has developed a ground-breaking, environmentally friendly, lightweight composite bonding technology that poses real potential as a key solution in advanced manufacturing. Also at the awards, on the night, TCD and ProVerum were voted by attendees as the winners for the People’s Choice Award. ProVerum is developing a medical device to assist older men with benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common bladder condition in men over 50.