Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has announced the successful applicants of the Capital Equipment Fund administered by Enterprise Ireland through the Technology Gateway and Technology Centre Programmes.
A total of 29 successful projects from across the third level sector have secured over €6m in funding to assist them in buying world-leading research equipment that will serve the Research and Development needs of Irish industry.
The funding will provide with access to critical, leading-edge equipment that will allow them to engage in R&D activities, pilot manufacturing capability for new products and process development, enhance technology validation and testing capabilities, test bed generation and enhanced training potential for key industry staff on emerging technologies in collaboration with the technology gateways and technology centres across Ireland.
Leo Varadkar said that great things happen when companies collaborate with third level institutions, adding that recent data show that companies which collaborate with our universities have double the turnover of those that don’t.
“Third level institutions benefit too, by getting to work with creative, business-minded entrepreneurs, working on solutions to real life problems,” he added.
Gearoid Mooney, Divisional Manager, Research & Innovation at Enterprise Ireland, said this important investment coupled with the support and expertise of our technology gateways and centres will enable Irish industry to pursue their own innovation agendas particularly on challenges where they don’t have all of the resources “in house”.
“The successful projects announced today will provide equipment that is essential to serving the R&D needs of Irish industry and may give them an opportunity to try important assets before they invest in them,” he added.
Source: rte.ie