Good Neighbours

SINCE THE RECENT MERGER OF INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY IN TRALEE AND CORK, THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED MUNSTER TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY (MTU) HAS AN IMPRESSIVE GROUP OF TECHNOLOGY GATEWAYS UNDER ITS UMBRELLA, AND STRONG RESEARCH RELATIONSHIPS WITH NEIGHBOURING INDUSTRIES, BOTH INDIGENOUS AND INTERNATIONAL.

DEANNA O’CONNOR investigates the advantages of tech clusters

Ireland’s Institutes of Technology have a long history of harnessing the power of industry collaboration; working with external partners has led to tangible impacts in the regions, fostering innovation clusters around these centres of learning. The recent amalgamation of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and IT Tralee into Munster Technological University (MTU), has created an impressive multi-campus university with a regional footprint of six sites across the South West region, in Cork and Kerry, offering over 140 programmes, and hosting a student body of 18,000. On the establishment of the new University, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD called it “an important milestone for higher education in Ireland” and noted the regional impact, saying, “The new Munster Technological University will start its journey and drive access, excellence, and regional development. It will strengthen the links with businesses in the country and the community, all of which will greatly enrich and enhance the South West. A strong and innovative higher education sector is vital to sustaining and developing community and economy,” states Brid McElligott, Vice President for Research, Development and External Engagement at MTU. “The establishment of MTU represents a transformative change in access to higher education, professional training, focused research and community/enterprise engagement in Kerry and the South West. Creating a strong economy depends on creating places that can foster enterprise and innovation and attract investment and talent. Partnering with industry and community, MTU will build on a legacy of strong cross-sector relationships with start-ups, innovators and industry leading companies and will work with its many stakeholders to ensure the region leverages the potential of its location.”

TECHNOLOGY GATEWAYS

The Enterprise Ireland-funded Technology Gateway programme was set up to foster partnerships between educational institutes and industry on research projects. Technology Gateways are located in institutes across the country and provide open access to all sorts of companies to engage in research and innovation and offer enhanced training on emerging technologies. The new MTU is now home to four, along with a number of other industry-specific tech clusters. The former CIT hosts the Technology for Embedded Computing (TEC) Gateway with expertise in ICT system level solutions, and the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA) with expertise in the generation and exploitation of light. The former IT Tralee hosts Shannon ABC, which supports companies across a range of life sciences projects, and IMaR, which offers expertise in ICT and engineering. Research activity has grown exponentially over the past decade, aided by successive institutional research strategic plans that placed an emphasis on supporting research collaborations across multidisciplinary departments and growing collaboration with external partners, to drive research and innovation activities. To give an example, CIT’s research income directly from industry has risen steadily yearon-year, up to €2.64 million in 2019, up from €896,299 in 2018. According to Dr Niall Smith, Head of Research at MTU, there has also been a shift from a large number of small projects with industry to a smaller number of larger projects funded by industry and a greater development of long-term partnerships. In strategic multi-annual research programmes with external partners, partners are influencing research activity and research institutions are simultaneously influencing them. These research and innovation clusters have extremely positive impacts on the regions in which they are located— generating highly qualified PhDs, attracting new skills and expertise to the region, attracting industry and business collaborators to the areas, increasing employment, and overall improving the quality of life.

Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre

SHANNON ABC

Over the past number of years, the Kerry campus of Munster Technological University has played a leading role in collaboration with industry in securing over €2.5m in funding for several industry-specific tech clusters. These industryspecific tech clusters support the work of two research centres based on the Kerry campus—Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre (Shannon ABC) and the Intelligent Mechatronics and RFID Gateway (IMaR). Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre began as a collaboration between Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and originally IT Tralee, now absorbed into MTU. Shannon ABC delivers close-tomarket solutions for industry in sectors including Agricultural, Food, Marine, Medical and Pharmaceutical. Shannon ABC has developed significant expertise in bio-resources— detection, identification, characterisation and valorisation—and collaborates with industry and other research centres in order to deliver this expertise in applied settings. The Centre conducts confidential industrial biotechnological research and acts as an access point to wider research resources and infrastructure, responding to the challenges of Biotech, Food and Life Science Industries through the sustainable development of viable and cost-effective processes and products from bio-resources. Stryker, the US-headquartered medical technologies corporation, has worked with the Shannon ABC on proof of concept work to enable development of a new platform technology. In a testimonial for the Shannon ABC, the Project Manager at Stryker noted that, “During the development phase of any novel technologies, the start-up costs for high-tech equipment can be quite prohibitive. The range of top-end analytical equipment availwwable at Shannon ABC and its proximity to the Stryker Limerick facility, made this the ideal solution.” Previously, they would have looked internationally to achieve the same results, and the spokesperson added, “In the past we have had to travel abroad for such services and it is a real benefit to the MidWest region and Ireland to have this facility on our doorstep. In addition, the staff of Shannon ABC have been extremely accommodating and strong links have been formed with the facility that will ensure that Stryker will continue to utilise the services again in the future.”

CAPPA

The Centre for Advanced Photonics & Process Analysis (CAPPA) is based in Cork, and provides photonics solutions to companies in sectors such as photonics, medical devices, food and pharma. Photonics is the science of generating, controlling and detecting light. The field is at the crossroads of several disciplines including physics, electronics, mathematics and chemistry. CAPPA’s scientists have partnered with a host of industry partners including well-known names such as Janssen and Nestlé. Many of the advances in the field of photonics involve wavelengths (or colours) of light that are invisible to the human eye, so its impact is less visible. Despite being invisible to us, UV light has a great many useful applications in diverse fields such as curing of adhesives, security tagging and biological imaging. Infra-red (IR) light meanwhile, would be most commonly known for its applications in thermal imaging, but it is also used in fields such as spectroscopy, telecommunications, electronics and astronomy. GE Healthcare’s Plant Reliability Manager, described CAPPA as, “our go-to on materials investigation issues”, and went on to say, “CAPPA lab, people and systems are technically first-class, but also flexible and businessfriendly.” Alcon, part of the Novartis group, is the world’s largest ophthalmic company. Its facility in Cork employs 360 people. CAPPA has worked with Alcon since 2008 on various direct funded consultancy projects in conjunction with the Process Engineering and Quality Assurance groups within the company. This has provided Alcon with access to CAPPA’s high resolution imaging and spectroscopy facilities to assist them in a wide range of materials, process and product investigations. Barry Walsh, MS&T Tech Transfer Lead/ Chief Scientific Officer, Alcon, explains, “We use the expertise of CAPPA on an ongoing basis for carrying out tests on products. Having CAPPA on our doorstep is hugely beneficial to Alcon as it provides us with the cutting edge analytical technology we need to make informed decisions on our process and projects.” CAPPA also worked with New Hampshire, USA-headquarterd ProPhotonix, a company which designs and manufactures LED illumination solutions and laser module across its facilities in Cork, Ireland and Essex, U.K. Having identified a gap in the market, ProPhotonix to both understand their target idea and to demonstrate the technological challenges that were involved. Through this Innovation Partnership and in conjunction with CAPPA partners in the Tyndall Institute, a series of initial modules were designed and fabricated. According to Ken Reynolds, Business & Technology Manager at ProPhotonix, “ProPhotonix gained access to key research and development expertise that would otherwise not have allowed them to develop this product. The company now has a market disruptive product available to them with key customers targeted.” “ProPhotonix gained access to key research and development expertise that would otherwise not have allowed them to develop this product. The company now has a market disruptive product available to them with key customers targeted.”

MTU Tralee Campus

MTU Tralee Campus

Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre

IMAR

The Intelligent Mechatronics and RFID (IMaR) Technology Gateway (imar.ie) is based in Tralee, providing solutions for companies using Intelligent Mechatronics, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Internet of Things (IoT), focusing on the delivery of a wide range of automation, identification and manufacturing services. Through partnerships with industry and business, IMaR gains pragmatic knowledge through pilot implementation of IMaR proof of concept in the real-world rather than solely in laboratories. These mutually beneficial partnerships have been created through EU and nationally funded mechanisms. Some of IMaR’s multinational partners include GE Global Research, Liebherr, Astellas and Vistakon (a division of Johnson &Johnson). IMaR is also the lead partner in the Applied IoT Technology Gateway Group. This consortium brings together 300 research professionals in software, hardware, communications/networks, data analytics, control, UI/UX and trialling, from the five Technology Gateways across the nationwide network via a dedicated portal. The cluster also includes TEC, WiSAR based in Letterkenny ITy, MSTG based in Waterford IT, and COMAND based in Athlone IT, as well as a support office in Dublin.

These mutually beneficial partnerships have been created through EU and nationally funded mechanisms. Some of IMaR’s multinational partners include GE Global Research, Liebherr, Astellas and Vistakon (a division of Johnson &Johnson.

CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY CLUSTER SOUTH WEST

A new Cluster project will set the South West region apart as a Circular Bioeconomy leader.

By 2030, it is expected that 1 million jobs in the bioeconomy will be created across Europe. The newly-launched Circular Bioeconomy Cluster South West aims to put the region at the forefront of innovation, technology and talent development, with a focus on marine and waste-to-value themes. Based on the MTU Kerry Campus and funded through the Regional Technology Clustering Fund, the Circular Bioeconomy Cluster focuses on strengthening collaboration between researchers, technology providers, and industry to develop, scale and internationalise next generation bio-based products, services and value chains, whilst in tandem driving forward to transition to a low carbon economy. Answering to a multi-sectoral need to create added value from waste streams and the Marine Sectors, it will provide companies with access to key enabling technologies and disruptive business models to enable new inter-firm partnerships and scale a new wave of bio-based innovation, products, services and value chains start-up and talent development. “In addition to existing companies embracing this diversification opportunity, MTU looks forward to working with the Cluster companies providing research, innovation and upskilling supports,” states Dr. Helena McMahon, Head of Dept. STEM & Circular Bioeconomy Research Group. For more information see cbcsw.ie.