Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 July 2014
16. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when Knowledge Transfer Ireland will be established; the targets that have been set for it; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29939/14]
View answerKnowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) was formally launched on 28th of May 2014. KTI is hosted in Enterprise Ireland and now operates as Ireland’s central point of reference for business-research partnership and commercialisation. It will act as a neutral space to support interactions between companies and higher education institutions.
The aim of KTI is to support the State in maximising the economic and societal benefits from Ireland’s investment in public research by making it easy for business and investors to access the intellectual assets in Ireland’s Universities, Institutes of Technology and other publicly funded research institutions. The ultimate objective of this initiative is to enable companies of every shape and size to become more innovative and competitive leading to new products and services, company growth and job creation. These aims will be achieved by providing a fully integrated, streamlined, predictable knowledge transfer system for Ireland by standardising processes and providing practical resources.
Central to the KTI service offering is its unique web resource - www.knowledgetransferireland.com - which offers companies for the first time:
- A comprehensive overview of the research capabilities of all Irish Universities, Institutes of Technologies and specialist research centres in one place;
- Searchable databases of research expertise and talent;
- Details of over 160 pre-commercial technologies developed by research performing institutions which are available to license;
- A series of practical guides and model agreements on engaging with the research sector; and
- Access to all patents filed by Ireland’s publicly-funded research institutions.
The targets set for KTI derive from the national Intellectual Property (IP) Protocol published in 2012 and are articulated in the Action Plan for Jobs 2014 as follows:
- Action 124: Launch the central technology transfer office (Knowledge Transfer Ireland) industry portal incorporating searchable licensing opportunities from Ireland’s HEIs in order to increase the visibility of research opportunities to industry. This action was completed with the launch of the KTI on 28 May.
- Action 125: Provide a suite of model agreements and supporting guidance notes for business in order to ease the interaction between industry and HEIs, for inclusion in IP Protocol. This action was completed with the launch of KTI and a suite of model agreements is now available on the KTI website.
- Action 126: Introduce a broader range of knowledge transfer key performance indicators for Ireland’s HEI sector. This action is under development and is targeted for completion in Q4 2014 as per the timeframe in APJ.
- Action 127: Issue first annual report on knowledge transfer in Ireland as a vehicle to promote research collaboration to industry. This action is also under development and is targeted for completion in Q4 2014 as per APJ timeframe.
The Enterprise Ireland funded Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI) falls under the remit of KTI and the metrics and associated targets for 2014 under TTSI are:
- 36 Spin-out companies;
- 122 Licenses, Options, Assignments (Technologies transferred);
- 279 Research Agreements with Industry with a value of over €25,000;
- 139 Preliminary Patent Filings; and
- 400 Invention disclosures.
