Role of Applied R

1
Role of Applied RD Centres in Knowledge
Transfer towards SMEs
The IRE Knowledge Transfer Working Group
18-19 October 2007, Göteborg, Sweden
2
RTD Centres of Excellence

• 18 RTD Centres of Excellence funded by EU Peace
  II Programme, Invest NI Centres themselves
• Centres include 10 business and 8 academic
  organisations that carry out leading edge,
  industrially exploitable and above all,
  commercially focused research jointly employ
  400 Research staff
• SMEs participate through the university centres,
  due to incentive of university income from SME
  contract research and HEIF and KTP support to
  reach out to the business community
• SMEs can also influence University centres
  through Industrial Advisory Boards research
  should be relevant to local companies.
• SMEs may have opportunities to licence
  technologies developed in the Centres or
  spin-out businesses may result from Centre of
  Excellence research.

3
Northern Ireland Science Park (NISP)

• NISP established as a not-for-profit organisation
  in March 1999 with the aim of creating a self
  sustaining, internationally recognised
  knowledge-based Science Park in Northern Ireland
  offering a commercial and research driven centre
  for knowledge-based industries.
• NISP encourages SMEs to participate by providing
  accommodation in a high quality built environment
  and infrastructure, supported by high-speed
  telecoms, enabling tenant companies to focus on
  knowledge-based entrepreneurialism and by
  providing entrepreneurship support projects such
  as
• halo
• 25k awards
• Enzyme programme
• InnovaNET
• Inkucabin

4
QUBIS UUTECH

• QUBIS UUTECH manage the Universities spinout
  portfolio
• QUBIS Ltd was established in 1984 by The Queen's
  University of Belfast to commercialise the
  Universitys research and development activities
  through the formation of 'spin-out' businesses.
• UUTech is the University of Ulsters Technology
  and Knowledge Transfer company. It was
  established in 1998 to manage the evaluation and
  exploitation of the Universitys intellectual
  property. In September 2004, it launched a
  broader, more commercially driven vision.
• SMEs, are not so much encouraged to participate
  as they are created, and are offered a number of
  services.