Trinity, Teagasc and UCD win big at KTI Impact Awards 2022

Meanwhile, TCD and ProVerum bagged the people’s choice award at the ceremony last night.

Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Teagasc and University College Dublin (UCD) have been recognised at the annual Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) Impact Awards 2022 for their role in transforming academic research into commercial opportunities.

Now in its ninth year, the KTI Impact Awards recognise the work of higher education innovation offices across Ireland across three categories: commercialisation impact, industry engagement and ‘future forward’ introduced last year.

TCD and digital mental health spin-out SilverCloud Health bagged the commercialisation impact award.

Founded in 2012, SilverCloud’s programmes have been used by more than 350,000 users, including more than 70pc of the NHS mental health services in the UK. It raised $16m in Series B funding in April 2020 and was acquired by US telehealth company Amwell a year later.

SilverCloud now employs more than 175 people across the world – almost half of whom are based in Ireland. The company plans to launch 15 new apps this year.

The award for industry engagement went to Teagasc, Independent Milk Laboratories, FBA Laboratories and Kerry Group.

Over the last two years, this group has worked together to build testing that aims to safeguard milk products used in dairy-based infant formula and reduce waste in the production process.

As the sole Irish provider of accredited chlorate testing, Teagasc worked with the companies to establish new analytical laboratories and provided training to staff in operation of equipment, test methods and data analysis.

Meanwhile, the future forward award – geared towards more early-stage activity with potential for future impact – was taken home by UCD and deep-tech spin-out PlasmaBound.

Founded in 2017 by Dr James Nicholas Barry, Alan Barry and Xavier Montibert, PlasmaBound has developed tech that aims to take the use of recyclable composite materials into the mainstream.

The NovaUCD-based start-up specialises in controlled polymer ablation (CPA) tech, which could speed up the manufacture of renewable lightweight materials with increased reliability. These can be used in everything from vehicles and devices to physical structures, reducing carbon output and waste.

Earlier this week, PlasmaBound became one of five start-ups from around the world to win a challenge to collaborate and innovate with Hyundai and Kia.

“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,” said Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Dara Calleary, TD.

“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.”

An additional people’s choice award went to TCD and ProVerum last night (1 December). The company is developing a medical device to assist older men with benign prostatic hyperplasia – a common bladder condition in men over 50.

“It is important to pay particular credit to the work of the technology transfer offices around the country who provide the vital link and support structure so knowledge transfer can deliver meaningful outcomes to society,” said Enterprise Ireland’s Imelda Lambkin, who chaired the judging panel.

“The teams in these offices around the country are key to the successes being celebrated by the KTI Impact Awards.”

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