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Invent DCU Celebrates 10 Years of Innovation & Enterprise
This week Invent DCU marked 10 years of commercialisation activity with a gala event in The Helix. The event highlighted DCU’s impressive commercialisation achievements and gave an overview of Invent’s activities over the last decade.
DCU President Prof. Brian MacCraith welcomed the large gathering from industry, research and academia. Many state agencies and supporters of Invent were also represented including SFI, Enterprise Ireland and AIB.
Prof. MacCraith acknowledged that Invent plays a pivotal role in assisting DCU to be a research-intensive, globally-engaged University of Enterprise that focuses on the discovery of knowledge and its translation into societal and economic benefit. He views Invent as the interface between DCU’s research community and industry and is the engine that catalyses and drives innovation at DCU.
Invent CEO, Richard Stokes then highlighted the organisation’s achievements over the past 10 years. He confirmed that since its formation in September 2001, Invent DCU is now one of the leading Technology Transfer Offices in Ireland in terms of licencing activities to both Irish companies and to overseas markets. In 2011 alone, Invent assisted in establishment of 6 new start-up companies based on DCU technology.
Speaking after the event, Richard Stokes said, “This event was our opportunity to showcase the range of work carried out by the Technology Transfer team at Invent. Our video also allowed us to provide industry with an insight into how the DCU research community, through Invent, successfully collaborates to identify market opportunities for companies.”
An expert panel of speakers on the day comprised of Ian Quinn, Creganna Tacxt Medical, Peter Conlon, Ammado and Sean McGowan, B Located. The depictions    of the successes and challenges they faced in their businesses captivated the audience. The speakers were then joined by Prof. Colm O’Gorman, DCU Business School and Dr. Jim Mountjoy, Board member, SFI for a lively and thought provoking panel discussion titled How to stimulate and harness innovation in business! Invent board member Pat Brazel successfully chaired the proceedings for the day.
Companies who have engaged with Invent in the past along with present clients were represented at the event with an array of stands showcasing their technologies. These companies were joined by Invent’s Resident Experts who continue to give selflessly of their time to assist the growth of these enterprises.
A poster display of Technologies which were licenced to Irish and overseas companies were profiled along with the 6 new technology start up companies from 2011.The event came to a close with the Annual Commercialisation Awards Ceremony.
These awards were set up by Invent DCU to publicly recognise the researchers who work with Invent to commercialise their research. The awards were a great success with attendance of over 100 researchers on the day from various Schools and Faculties in DCU.
Invent would like to thank all who have offered support for this event. It looks forward to achieving its vision to increasingly become the hub of innovation at DCU and be the centre for commercialisation and technology transfer in this country that is known for being the most responsive and easy to do business with.
For more information, please contact maria.johnston@invent.dcu.ie
For further information on Invent, please check out www.dcu.ie/invent/