Recently I had the pleasure of visiting NovaUCD (located on Belfield
campus off Foster's Avenue) which is a purpose built state-of-the-art incubation
facility for high-tech and knowledge intensive start-up industries. I very much thank its current Director, Brendan Cremen for conducting an informative tour of this impressive facility. An
innovation centre for new ventures, it has been the hub of commercialisation
and entrepreneurial activity in UCD since 2003. Prior to that it grew out of
the University Industry Centre (UIC) set up in 1985 which was the brainchild of Professor Emeritus
John Kelly, UCD Dean of Engineering in the 1980s, later UCD Registrar/Deputy
President and now a leading member of the Irish Academy of Engineering. John was also the Founding Father of the UCD
Engineering Graduates Association set up in 1984. (http://www.ucd.ie/eacollege/engineeringgraduatesassociation/history/)
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| UCD Emeritus Professor John Kelly |
The University Industry Centre
or UIC was the first 'innovation centre' in UCD (and perhaps nationally)
implementing a new policy of closer University-industry cooperation. It was an
initiative of the UCD Engineering Graduates Association funded by engineering
graduates and firms organised by a Trust who raised £1 million led by Dr John
Kelly, Dr Tom Hardiman former Director General RTE and former Chairman of the National Board for Science and Technology and Dr Paddy Galvin then CEO of Guinness. The UIC Building was officially
opened in May 1985, some 30 years ago by then Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald.
In 1988 Dr Pat Frain was
appointed Director and the University Industry Programme (UIP) was established
to develop innovation, technology transfer and other forms of co-operation
between the University and the industrial and business community in Ireland/overseas.
Throughout the 1990s the UIP
supported the development of a range of successful multidisciplinary courses at
the UIC, a number of patents and other commercial opportunities. In the late 1990s the scarcity of incubation
space and other facilities to support the activities of the UIP became an
increasing constraint to commercialisation, enterprise development and industry
co-operation at UCD.
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| Dr Pat Frain, Director NovaUCD 2003-2012 |
In 2003, the work of the
University Industry Programme was moved from the UIC Building to the Merville
facility also on Belfield campus and rebranded as NovaUCD. This new €11 million Centre for New Ventures
and Entrepreneurs was opened with the support of a unique public-private
partnership comprising UCD and AIB Bank, Arthur Cox, Deloitte, Enterprise
Ireland, Ericsson, Goodbody Stockbrokers and Xillinx.
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| Dr Conor Hanley, co-founder, BiancaMed |
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| Prof Conor Henaghan, co-founder BiancaMed |
UCD and the entire
engineering profession together with their scientific colleagues now need to
celebrate the success of Nova UCD with its proud history and heritage as
described.
Since 2003, UCD has achieved
phenomenal success in research and innovation.
It has provided business development support to 240 companies and
early-stage projects through the incubation services and supports provided at
NovaUCD. In the 10-year period (2003-2013) over 125 companies have been direct clients of NovaUCD and availed of desk space
bio-incubation units or business unit facilities within the on-campus centre. These companies, which employ over 590 staff, have raised €90 million in equity
funding, and have a current annual turnover of €71 million. Furthermore, these same companies expect to
create over 850 new jobs by 2016.
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| NovaUCD at Merville House, Belfield |
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| Prof Dolores O'Riordan, Director, UCD Institute of Food & Health |
NovaUCD supported
companies contribute €34 million a year in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the
Irish economy and over €7.5 million GVA to the international economy. Between them these companies currently
support 1,250 jobs, directly and indirectly, of which 1,000 are based in
Ireland. Since 2003 the University has earned €5.2
million in commercialisation income.
This includes €3 million from the sale of shareholding in spin-out
companies and €2.2 million in royalty-related income, of which 12% has come
from Irish-owned companies, 54% from multinational companies with a base in
Ireland and 34% from multinationals with no Irish presence.
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| Prof Brian Glennan & Dr Mark Bennet, co-founders APC |
As a direct result of
entering into licensing agreements with UCD, businesses have been able to
increase their annual turnover in Ireland by an average of €3.6 million and
international turnover by €5.8 million. Intellectual
property developed at UCD currently generates an additional €2.1 million GVA
for the Irish economy and an additional €3.4 million GVA for the international
economy and supports a total of 89 additional jobs each year.
The scale of NovaUCD’s
contribution to Ireland’s economy looks set to increase significantly in years to
come.
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| Donal Ryan & Dr Emmeline Hill, Equinome |
BiGGAR Economics estimate
that, by 2016, existing supported companies will be generating €64 million GVA
for the Irish economy each year and directly and indirectly supporting 1,900
jobs in Ireland, as well as contributing €18.2 million GVA and supporting 538
jobs in the international economy each year.
By 2016 total
entrepreneurial and commercialisation activities at NovaUCD, assuming that the
income generated by intellectual property remains in line with the trend of the
past 10 years, will be generating €87.7 million GVA a year and supporting
directly and indirectly some 2,527 jobs in all.
Some €66.1 million of this GVA and 1,934 of these jobs will be in
Ireland.
Today as we approach the 30th
Anniversary of the opening of the University Industry Centre we salute its
founding EGA fathers (and funders). We congratulate
UCD in growing this innovation and incubation centre into the world class
facilities at NovaUCD that is under its current Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation, Brendan Cremen and UCD Vice
President for Research Innovation and Impact, Professor Orla Feely.
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| NovaUCD Director Brendan Cremen |
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| UCD Vice President for Research Innovation & Impact, Prof Orla Feely |
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