Dr Stephen Daniels wins major Entrepreneurship Award

Dr Stephen Daniels has won a Commercialisation Award in recognition of his outstanding entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to commercialising research at The Big Ideas Showcase held this week by Enterprise Ireland.

In addition to his work leading a multidisciplinary research team in plasma technology and energy systems, Dr Daniels also holds a post as senior Lecturer in the School of Electronics at Dublin City University. He has also been instrumental in the formation of several technology businesses including Arann Healthcare Ltd, Qualflow Systems Ltd, Lexas Research and Sonex Metrology.

Within DCU, Dr Daniels is regarded as a real champion of innovation through his research work, his engagement with industry and his encouragement of entrepreneurship amongst students. He plays an integral part in furthering DCU's vision to be internationally recognised as a research intensive, globally–engaged University of Enterprise.

The Big Ideas Showcase is the largest gathering of inventors and investors in the country. This year's event showcased the latest collection of nineteen investment opportunities, each with its own merits and business potential. These ideas are the culmination of years of research by some of Ireland's finest researchers. Their research is solving real problems and creating real opportunities. The Big Ideas showcased today vied for the attention of over 300 potential investors.

Addressing an audience of investors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and representatives from Irish and multinational companies, Minister Sherlock said; "The discovery, protection and transfer of commercially valuable intellectual property from "bench to boardroom" is essential if Ireland is to generate more high-value jobs and exports. Enterprise Ireland has assisted the researchers here today to bring their technologies to the global marketplace. To encourage and further harness these innovations, the Government is striving to create the right environment where ideas can be identified, protected and commercialised."

"The Government's recently introduced Intellectual Property Protocol marks a major evolution in Ireland's approach to industry engagement with public research. It is about encouraging industry to collaborate with Ireland's publicly funded research institutions; to use and commercialise the IP generated from such research and turn it into products and services for the global marketplace. It sets out a new system that is designed to make it easier and faster for entrepreneurs and companies to negotiate a commercial arrangement with publicly funded research performing organisations".

Dr Stephen Daniels For more info on Stephen Daniels please visit: www.eeng.dcu.ie/~daniels

Arann Healthcare Ltd: design and develop innovative infection systems for the global healthcare market. Their Radica system for instance uses plasma gas discharge technology to reduce the spread of harmful pathogens on hospital beds, mattresses and wheelchairs.

Qualflow Systems Ltd: have developed automated hygiene control systems for the food and beverage industries and portable water dosing and treatment systems.

Lexas Research: a metrology and diagnostic solutions company in the Semiconductor manufacturing sector. This company has developed products offering etch end point detection, arc detection, chamber matching and fault detection capabilities.

Sonex Metrology: a High Potential Start-Up form DCU that received preference share investment from the EI Investment Committee in 2011. Sonex has developed non-destructive photoacoustic surface damage detection and Silicon metrology technology for the Semiconductor manufacturing industry. This technology can non-invasively and non-destructively detect faults in silicon wafers and can be used as part of an in-line process control system