Enterprise Ireland's Innovation Partnerships scheme is a very worthwhile mechanism for industrial engagement in academic research.The Innovation Partnership Initiative offers financial support to companies who engage in collaborative research projects with Irish universities and institutes of technology.  Enterprise Ireland provides grants of up to 80% towards eligible costs of the research project.  The proposal process and administration of the project is managed by the participating third level research institution.

An Innovation Partnership with a third level research institution can;

• Increase the development potential of your business 
• Give your company access to hot technologies developed in the Irish third-level sector
• Provide a cost-effective approach to innovative product and process development

Participation in the programme is initiated by the submission of an Outline Proposal by a third-level institution. Click here to download the guidelines and forms for submitting an Innovation Partnership proposal

For more information from Enterprise Ireland on Innovation Partnerships click http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/ResearchInnovate/R+and+D+Collaboration/Innovation+Partnerships.htm

Some examples of current DCU Innovation Partnerships

Murco Ltd.
Murco is a  Dun Laoghaire based company specialising in the manufacture and supply of Gas Monitoring equipment. This equipment monitors combustible and toxic gases in industrial and commercial buildings and environmentally harmful leaks from refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in hotels and industrial locations.
Murco has been working with DCU for some time and their interest is mainly in electronic interfaces and sensor design. They have recently sought assistance from DCU in designing;
• a wireless version of their equipments (battery powered and RF communications) to eliminate wiring installation costs
• an Infrared sensor for refrigerant gases
• an ammonia sensor
This work is partly funded by Enterprise Ireland under their Innovation Partnership scheme.

EpiSensor Ltd.
EpiSensor is a Limerick based company that develops and sells products for energy consumption monitoring, street light control, water quality monitoring and building climate control. It has special expertise in developing ZigBee wireless sensor networks and transmitting data over mobile phone networks. EpiSensor and DCU are developing an autonomous water quality monitoring system that uses phosphate sensor technology developed by DCU. This work is being carried out under the EI Innovation Partnership scheme.

Enfer
There is an urgent worldwide need for improved diagnostic assays that can rapidly detect specific microbial pathogens of relevance to animal healthcare and veterinary research. Livestock diseases not only cause major economic losses, but zoonotic diseases can also be transmitted to humans either directly or through the food chain. This DCU - Enfer collaboration aims to develop a suite of novel assays that will accelerate and improve the detection of selected bovine microbial pathogens and other species-specific markers.

Symantec
Symantec is the world leader in providing solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the security,availability, and integrity of their digital innovation. The Symantec Global Language Services Centre is responsible for company‐wide localisation management along with ongoing research and development efforts.

In 2006 Symantec approached Invent DCU with a problem statement dealing with multilingual customer support. Due to demands on time, Symantec can currently only provide security alert information to many of its global customers in English. The time required for human translation means that translation is often not possible and, therefore, Symantec’s customers do not receive critical information on security threats, in their native language.

After discussing the problem statement CNGL researchers suggested the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership program, which funds innovative academic and industry collaborations with the aim of facilitating new product development. Over several weeks CNGL researchers worked with Symantec to draft a joint application outlining a 24 month research proposal with a budget for dedicated research staff, which was formally funded by EI later that year.

Dr. Sharon O’Brien CNGL and School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies, is responsible for overall project administration, including technical and financial reporting while Symantec’s Director of R&D, Language Services, maintains regular supervision of the project objectives. Additionally Symantec has allocated one of its R&D Engineers to support the project on a weekly basis, while the academic researchers spend an average of two days a week on site at Symantec.

When asked about his experiences with CNGL Dr. Fred Hollowood, Director R&D, Language Services at Symantec observed: "Funding from EI really helped us scale our R&D to meet this important challenge. Furthermore collaboration between project researchers and Symantec’s internal customers really helps to focus the research direction and ensure its uptake within the organization."

Ultimately, by leveraging the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership scheme, Symantec has been able to undertake research in an area of great strategic importance in which it lacked the necessary expertise. By establishing a sustainable automatic translation process that produces a satisfactory level of information to non English speaking customers, Symantec will create a distinct competitive advantage in the market and firmly establish Ireland as the source of cutting‐edge innovation in the localisation sector.