NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 10 March
10-03-2010
by Sylvia Leatham
Gov announces EUR56m research investment | NGN test centre launched at WIT
Minister for Enterprise Mary Coughlan has unveiled a EUR56 million research investment, with a focus on commercialisation. The initiative, to be driven by Enterprise Ireland and the IDA, will see 180 companies work together with third-level institutes in nine clusters called 'Competence Centres'. Five of these clusters have already been established to work on research in areas such as IT innovation, applied nanotechnology and microelectronics. The four other centres, yet to be completed, will focus on manufacturing productivity, energy efficiency, financial services and e-learning. Each centre will be based in a university, with support from partner Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). The aim of these collaborative clusters is to help the HEIs align their research agendas with what industry is looking for. Within five years, the initiative aims to transfer at least 80 pieces of commercially viable intellectual property in the form of technology licences, have over 60 engineers and scientists directly employed in the centres, and have a further 60 to 80 industry personnel working on research projects.
In more news of research commercialisation, Trinity College Dublin has approved 10 new spinout firms as campus companies. The companies will exploit the latest technologies in bioscience, physical science and ICT in an effort to turn research into profit. The companies include Miravex, which has produced a hand-held imaging device that can be used in cosmetic medicine; Treocht, which is developing a web-based system to monitor global events using print, video and audio sources; and ReciTell, a provider of advanced e-learning solutions. TCD also noted that last year its Technology Transfer Office received 47 invention disclosures, 22 new patent applications were filed, and six licence agreements were concluded.
Ireland's first Next Generation Network (NGN) Test Centre has been launched at Waterford Institute of Technology by the institute's Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG). Funded in association with Enterprise Ireland, with support from Ericsson Ireland, the test centre's stated aim is to allow Irish software firms to trial their mobile services on a private network before taking them to market. "One of the biggest hurdles facing companies is persuading network operators to try their technology for fear that new products might crash networks. The NGN Test Centre will reduce the barriers to entry for any firm wishing to enter this profitable marketplace," said Gearoid Mooney, ICT Commercialisation Director, Enterprise Ireland. In a statement, the TSSG said "our staff can now provide clients with validation that the products they are developing are robust, commercially viable and can meet real-life demands". Research house Gartner predicts that the NGN services market in North America will be worth USD14 billion by 2015 and annual sales of NGN infrastructure products will increase by 60 percent over the next five years.
Irish IT outsourcing firm Version 1 has developed a membership management system for Engineers Ireland, in a deal worth EUR300,000. The new system replaces an existing membership management application and CRM system with a centralised system that connects with other applications, such as an online payment facility, a networking program and a financial package.
Virtualisation software firm Citrix has predicted that technology spending will increase 8 percent this year. That's according to James Stevenson, area vice president for Citrix Systems Ireland, UK and South Africa, who spoke at a Citrix event held in Dublin last week. Stevenson also said the strongest area for growth will be in desktop virtualisation, with the market in Ireland looking set to grow by 9.4 percent in 2010 and 27.4 percent in 2011. Citrix also announced various enhancements to its application virtualisation offering, XenApp 6.
Google has launched an app store for Google Apps users who wish to purchase additional cloud-based business applications. The Google Apps Marketplace has software add-ons that integrate with Google Apps on offer from more than 50 companies. In a blog post, Google gave examples of the type of third-party apps now available: payroll software, project management software and workflow management tools.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 