Entrepreneurial Universities 2012 - Synopsis

I attended the recent Entrepreneurial Universities Conference in Muenster, Germany, held over the 25^th-27^th April. There was great representation from Ireland there with Cork Institute of Technology, Dundalk Institute of Technology, University of Limerick, National College of Ireland, the Higher Education Authority and Shannon ABC all delivering presentations to the attendees.

The Conference was organised by the Science to Business Marketing Centre at Muenster University and the Finnish Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network for Higher Education.  There were 230 speakers at the conference and 6 parallel sessions ran for the duration of the two days – a fairly packed schedule. The themes of the parallel sessions were Enterprise Education: Fostering Knowledge Intensive Student Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness, Growth and Wellbeing through Innovations, Knowledge Partnerships and University-Business Cooperation, Entrepreneurship and Development and Science-to-Business Marketing.

The Conference provided an insight into how the third level sector is dealing with (or failing to deal with!) a progressive lack of funding, and making recommendations that, for example, colleges should not rely on licensing intellectual property as a revenue stream, but rather due to the lengthy time to get value from these agreement, treat it rather as an added bonus if it happens.

Other presentations dealt with engagement with SMEs and how to drive implementation of innovative practices within these organisations. Learning cafes, where groups of SMEs and Innovation facilitators were presented and had received very positive feedback from the attendees.

Entrepreneurship and innovation depends upon communication and a rather unorthodox way of stimulating this among innovators and investors, but particularly among research scientists.  “The Power of the Donut” is a concept developed by Business Arena Ltd and the University of Jyvaskyla, both based in Finland. They wanted to address the bottleneck in the technology transfer process that exists between researcher ideas and commercialisation of these. Their concept is that if you provide free donuts and coffee, people will show up. Literature is on display outlining on-going research at the University, ways to commercialize research and so. The programme was so successful that they have taken it on the road, travelling to other Universities to encourage researchers to talk, share ideas and commercialize their research.                  

Other nuggets of interesting information were:

·         Ireland has the highest perception of entrepreneurs in the OECD

·         German Universities file 600-700 patents per year

·         Innovation oriented entrepreneurial activity is 35% in Ireland, 25% in UK and 30% in US

·         Based on self assessment (!) Ireland scores highest for university business co-operation across all measured categories of a Survey on European University-Business Co-operation (6,280 responses in total) - http://ec.europa.eu/education/higher-education/doc/business/thematic11/davey_en.pdf. The authors of the report were very careful not to rank countries as responses were based on self assessment, however there is a definitely a qualitative positive message there for Irish third level institutes.

·         The biggest driver for University Business co-operation is trust

The Conference is a biennial event, and based on the great information and contacts made at this one, I certainly hope to attend in 2014.

Open Innovation 2012

Shannon ABC hosted Open Innovation 2012 on 4th and 5th Apil in Limerick Institute of Technology. The event, which was the first one of its type to be held, had good support with attendees from 20 companies, 8 third level institutes and also from many representative and state bodies such as Enterprise Ireland, Institutes of Technology, Ireland and the Industry Research and Development Group.
The day kicked off with a welcome from Maria Hinfelaar (President of LIT), particularly for the President and Head of Development of the Institute of Technology, Tralee (LIT's Shannon ABC partner) and a rousing address from Minister Brian Hayes, who'd had the opportunity of a whistle stop tour around the Shannon ABC facilities in LIT.
Minister Hayes was very generous with his time, and spoke about the importance of innovation as Ireland lays the groundwork for recovery. Minister Hayes also emphasised the importance of enterprise/academic partnerships and the key role that Enterprise Ireland play in this. The Minister went on to comment that Shannon ABC is an excellent example of collaborative support provided to industry.
Dr Iain Gillespie provided the keynote speech and kept the audience in rapt attention as he laid out the global innovation profile, and where Ireland is positioned. His message for Ireland was broadly positive, a lot done, however a lot more to do also, and that the public sector research structure has a massive role to play in driving innovation and R&D for industry.
Following the keynote address there were impressive presentations from Hilda Mulvihill from Stryker and Kevin O'Keefe from GSK speaking about how Open Innovation plays a key role in their organisations. Illustrating the value that collaboration with third level institutes can bring to companies, the Pharmaceutical and Molecular Biology Research Centre (PMBRC) based in Waterford Institute of Technology and the Centre for Research in Engineering Surface Technology (CREST) based in Dublin Institute of Technology both presented with partner companies EirGen and Cannon Hygiene respectively. These presentations outlined different mechanisms to fund R&D and practical outcomes of these.
The theme of how to fund R&D continued after lunch, facilitated by a panel discussion which included presentations on the Irish Research Council, Science Foundation Ireland, FP7, Enterprise Ireland and tax credits.
Rounding off the day were presentations from two indiginous Irish SMEs - Brandon Products and Cybercolloids - talking about practial examples of Open Innovation and a presentation from multinational PepsiCo on their drivers for engaging in Open Innovation.
Day 2 gave postgraduate and early stage postdoctoral resarchers the opportunity to present on industry relevant/specific research that they were engaged in. The Medical Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (MEDIC), based in Cork Institute of Technology provided the presentation that set the scene for the day - that of managing intellectual property. A number of presentations followed detailing the technologically advanced and industry relevant work being performed in Ireland, presenters included those from CIT, ITT, LIT and DIT. The Conference concluded with a workshop on Intellectual Property provided by Technology from Ideas, they had a tough crowd for the final afternoon of the conference (!), but all were soon deeply engaged in throwing out brainstormed ideas for new technologies.
We have received very positive feedback so far, it was a very enjoyable event to run, and one of the best parts for me was having companies from quite diverse backgrounds in the room together. The potential for problem solving and developing new business realtionships was evident and we hope that all involved found it a worthwhile event.
We look forward to hosting Open Innovation 2013 in IT Tralee!    

10th World Food Technology and Innovation Forum

I attended the recent 10^th Annual World Food Technology and Innovation Forum 2012. It was held in Citywest in Dublin and attracted over 100 senior level delegates from over 30 countries.

The conference kicked off with a fascinating presentation from Catherine Bedford of Stylus, an online business resource for consumer-facing industries. She spoke about some of the most innovative consumer realted scientific progresses that they have become aware of including growing algae at home for air purifying as well as a food source, using disused railway tunnels in Australia to grow mushrooms, producing fabric from milk and using fungi to degrade nappies. This really provided a great framework for the conference and was a fascinating insight.

As the Conference progressed it became evident that the majority of the presentations were more about Innovation rather than Technology and is probably an indicator of where the sector is at the moment in terms of focus. The value of innovation and including external organisations in this process is viewed as key and a number of presentations focussed specifically on innovation management, including those from Kraft Foods, Arla Foods, Wrigley and Unilever.   

Ireland were well represented in the presentations by Joe Healy from Enterprise Ireland and Food for Health Ireland (FHI), with their CEO, Jens Bleiel. Joe spoke about the different models of industry/academia collaboration in Ireland and the benefits that this has brought. This led smoothly into Jens’ presentation on FHI – a collaboration between academic partners; UCC, UCD, Teagasc, UL and industry; Carbery, Kerry, Dairygold and Glanbia and also supported by Enterprise Ireland. One of the key messages from this presentation was that successful innovation is the future of the food industry.  FHI has an industry led research agenda, with the capacity to scale up new processes through its industry partners. Through extensive work packages they cover the mega trends in health and wellness including weight management, glycemic management, muscle metabolism for healthy aging, gut health, food safety and more.

The networking service at the Conference was excellent with the opportunity to have pre-arranged one-to-one meetings with attendees at the Conference. I found this an excellent service and got great value from it. Enterprise Ireland, as host sponsors, were also on hand to provide introductions where necessary and received a great deal of interest in their exhibition stand.

The Conference next year is set for February, in Dublin again, and I would recommend anyone in the Irish food industry who did not attend this year to mark the date in their diary.

Innovation and the Pet Food Market

I attended the recent Enterprise Ireland workshop on Innovation and the Petfood Market in Eastpoint in Dublin. It was a fascinating day with many excellent presentations.
The market and market potential for the pet food sector in Ireland is €100 million + and has been, as some experts described it, "recession proof". Markets in other European countries are significantly higher, indicating the potential for the Irish market to grow further, and also the export potential for Irish companies.
The big driver for pet food is humanisation, or more simply, as Garett Dee (Leads Enterprise Ireland's Global Petfood and Animal Nutrition Sectoral Team) put it, 'look at human food trends now, in two years, that's what animals will be eating'. Its advice that holds true, particularly when you start to look more closely at the petfood market - food for healthcare issues such as obesity, healthy treats, functional foods containing omega 3 fatty acids and even 'hypoallergenic' foods.
Prof Dolores O'Riordan gave a great presentation on on-going work at UCD in collaboration with industry in this area. Predominantly the project revolves around encapsulation of enzymes and other molecules to ensure that they maintain maximum activity until they reach their target digestive area. The project is overseen by an Industry Steering group to ensure that commerical relevance in maintained (in much the same way that Shannon ABC is directed by an Industry Steering Committee). 
The day wound up with a round table discussion about opportunities for the petfood sector, funding through FP7 was discussed with a suggestion to the companies to contact either a research provider or their national contact points for FP7 to help guide them through the process. Opportunites were highlighted by Susan Steele and John Fagan from BIM's Seafood Development Centre in the area of utilising fish waste in the petfood sector, and also from Ann Maria Mullen on the collaborative opportunities with Teagasc. 
Given the direction of the petfood sector, paralleling human food, there are opportunities for petfood companies to also leverage on Shannon ABC's experience in the area of bioactive compounds, and the generation of value from waste.

Shannon ABC selected to present at 2012 Conference on Entrepreneurial Universities

From 25th to 27th April 2012, the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre and FINPIN will host a joint global conference on “Entrepreneurial Universities” in Münster, Germany. The conference provides the attendees with an excellent opportunity to share and exchange the latest knowledge on “Entrepreneurial Universities”.

The conference will include key note addresses by policymakers and renowned experts in the field of entrepreneurial universities and the conference sub-topics, parallel track and several workshops. Offering both a double-blind paper review as well as a call for presentations, the conference calls out to both academics and practitioners.

Shannon ABC were selected to present at the conference in the 'Knowledge Partnerships and University-Business Cooperation' sub-topic. The presentation is entitled: "Shannon ABC - Regional Industry's Vehicle for Innovation".

Innovation has many suggested definitions with one basic tenet - conversion of knowledge into money. This conversion can be an obstacle for many companies through weak links in the innovation chain such as lack of research facilities, funding, personnel and inexperience in applied R&D. Traditionally academia has focused on basic research with long lead-in times to commercialisation, making it often difficult for industry to benefit from academic collaborations.

Shannon ABC was established specifically to meet the research needs of industry and is utilised as the vehicle to provide a business-facing academic service to industry. This service allows industry, often SMEs, to bridge the gap between new product concept and market entry. We will be presenting case studies from some of our client companies to illustrate the impact of our collaborations.

We are very excited about the conference, with invited speakers including those from the University of Adelaide, Australia and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa discussing "Alternative Business Models for University-Industry Collaboration" and "Entrepreneurship and Development" respectively. It is sure to be a fascinating conference.

What does Shannon ABC do?

Over the course of my first 6 months in Shannon ABC, the 'elevator pitch' for Shannon ABC has become more and more refined, however it is still challenging to put into a 30 second pitch all the capabilities of Shannon ABC. The core of the work that we do is based around screening natural sources for bio-active compounds. This screen is, by now, a well established process within Shannon ABC. However, given the capabilities that feed into this process (protein biochemistry, molecular biology, food science, microbiology, fungal biology, analytical chemistry, etc) and the techniques and technology used to facilitate this (fermentations, solvent extractions, super-critical fluid extraction, GC-MS, HPLC, LC-MS/MS, cell culture, bio-reactors, etc) we can take specific sections and package them up for clients for contract research, collaborations, protocol design, etc in a variety of other areas.
Part of the unique selling point of Shannon ABC is the big picture view that we have developed. For example, while we would work with the food industry on a regular basis, we also have collaborations with a variety of other sectors including Pharmaceutical, Healthcare, Biotechnology, Textiles, etc. The advantage here is that while we may identify a bio-active compound from the food sector, we have the knowledge, capabilities and contacts to potentially apply that bio-active to a range of other sectors, adding substantial value and cross-sector awareness for our clients.
Industry requests for alternative services and technologies will also further fuel the expansion of Shannon ABC, and we will continue to grow as a comercially focussed Reseach, Development and Innovation Centre.

New Shannon ABC Blog

In parallel with the launch of its new look website, Shannon ABC is also launching its new blog service. Communication with potential clients, existing clients and the commercial and scientific worlds in general, is key to progressive innovation.
My name is Tim Yeomans and I am the Centre Manager for Shannon ABC and although I will be co-ordinating this blog, we will also be receiving non-confidential content from our scientists and commercialisation specialists based in Limerick Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology, Tralee.
Our blog is just one way in which we communicate with interested parties; regular updates are provided on Twitter and the profiles of our people can also be found on LinkedIn. Our regular Newsletter provides further insight into the progress that Shannon ABC is making, and the client base that we are serving.
On our blog we will be discussing upcoming and attended conferences and tradeshows, insights from our scientists into the world of bioactive molecules, regulations that are making progress challenging and key points from Shannon ABC research symposia, among others.
Our vision is to be industry's partner of choice for the provision of innovative biotechnological solutions. We have many commercial clients from a variety of sectors and we welcome interest from all sizes of commercial ventures and research institutes for confidential collaborations.