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“If we can get research commercialised, the sky is the limit”: Regional experts on Northwest competitiveness
Regional leaders, researchers, and industry representatives explored how research and enterprise partnerships could benefit the Northwest economy at RISE@ATU conference.
Hosted by RISE@ATU, From Research to Regional Enterprise brought together over 100 regional leaders, researchers, and industry representatives to discuss the role of research in addressing challenges and opportunities for regional economies.
Claire McGee, Chief Executive Officer of the Technological Universities Association (TUA), highlighted the important role technological universities play in connecting research and innovation with the needs of local enterprises.
“The technological university sector plays an incredibly important role in supporting innovation, research and development across Ireland’s regions,” she said.
Ms McGee described technological universities as a “powerhouse or catalyst in each region”, helping to anchor companies, develop skilled graduate pipelines and bring ideas into business.
She emphasised the importance of making research accessible and relevant to enterprise, encouraging businesses to work with universities to address the challenges they face.
“We want to make sure that enterprise continues to bring their difficult problems to ATU so that together, the researchers, the faculties can support those businesses to remain competitive, productive, and innovative in the northwest region,” she said.
40 billion reasons to invest in the Northwest region
The potential economic benefits of that relationship were also highlighted by John Daly, Senior Economist with the Northern & Western Regional Assembly.
At €44.9 billion, Daly pointed to the Northern and Western representing a significant part of Ireland’s economy, a figure he previously shared on the IDEAS Podcast.
He emphasised what research can deliver when it moves beyond the university and is commercialised:
The development of research from ATU supports the development of new products, new services, new processes if it becomes commercialised. If we can get research commercialised, the sky is the limit.
The challenge is ensuring that research expertise and investment translate into practical applications that businesses can use.
These challenges facing businesses were illustrated by John Gaffney of Avery Dennison Medical, who highlighted the pressure on companies to remain competitive against other sites internationally.
“We’re competing with 60 or 70 sites across Europe, so with wage inflation, we’re also competing against other sites internationally. You may have to pivot and look at automation, cobots and the benefits of Research and Development,” he said.
Michelle Conaghan, IDA Ireland, pointed to Vertiv, a company with locations in Co Donegal, collaborating with Nvidia to capitalise on the AI boom for our local and global economy.
She added from a northwest perspective how the three local authorities -Donegal, Sligo, and Leitrim – are developing a common vision about investing in this region:
“If you invest in this region, this is what you can get in return…if we as a wider region and ATU as a driver of innovation come up with a marketing message, how can we get people to sign up”.
Across two panels, From Research to Enterprise brought together perspectives from Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the Northern & Western Regional Assembly, the Marine Institute, Research Ireland, former Senior Vice President of Prudential Financial, Avery Dennison Medical, Bank of Ireland, and the External Engagement team at ATU.
A €19.6 million regional investment
The conference forms part of RISE@ATU, a €19.6 million investment in research capacity delivered through the TU RISE programme.
The initiative aims to strengthen research in technological universities and build closer links with regional businesses and communities, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.
Sixty RISE@ATU PhD researchers presented posters and talks aligned with the Smart Specialisation Strategy for Ireland (DETE, 2022), spanning sustainable fashion, dairy processing, freight infrastructure, and healthcare.
Claire McGee shared how the event brought together a “phenomenal range” of research disciplines and gave enterprise representatives an opportunity to hear first-hand about work underway at ATU.
From Research to Regional Enterprise is funded by RISE@ATU which is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Northern & Western Regional Programme 2021–2027.
Photo captions
Featured Image: John Daly, Senior Economist with the Northern & Western Regional Assembly, speaking during From Research to Regional Enterprise conference.
- (L-R) Mary Coughlan, Former Tánaiste of Ireland; Caroline Faulkner, Executive Leadership Coach; Finola Howe, Head of Enterprise & External Engagement at ATU; Barry Gallagher, Head of Bank of Ireland – Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim & Roscommon; John Gaffney, General Manager Europe, Avery Dennison Medical.
- (L-R) John Daly, Senior Economist with the Northern & Western Regional Assembly; Michelle Conaghan, Northwest Regional Manager, IDA Ireland; Majella Maher, Western Regional Manager, Enterprise Ireland; Dr Niall McDonough, Director of Policy, Innovation & Research Support, Marine Institute; Aisling McEvoy, Research Ireland.
Doctoral research award winners
Best Presentation Awards
- Society and Enterprise: Sana Ullah — Balancing Transparency and Privacy in Irish MedTech Cross-Border Regulatory Compliance using Blockchain
- Environmental and Sustainability: Mariam Elmofti — Towards Regenerative Business in a Polycrisis World
- Technology and Innovation: Obed Peprah — Physics-Constrained Hybrid Modelling of Dairy Spray Drying for a Validated Digital Model and an Implementation Pathway Towards a Self-Updating Digital Twin
- Health and Wellbeing: Lauren Callaghan — Smart Kids, Healthy Lives: Integrating Technology to Combat Childhood Obesity in Ireland
Elevator Pitch Award
Rebecca Tarpey — Nutritional Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices for Menstrual Cycle Symptom Management Among Women on the Island of Ireland
Best Poster Awards
- Society and Enterprise: Morena Gaudino — After the Storm: Investigating the Impact of Extreme Weather Events on Microplastic Distribution in Intertidal Sediments
- Environmental and Sustainability: Kithmini Gamage — Creating Value with Purposeful Freight Data Sharing
- Technology and Innovation: Dipshikha Das — Aligning Human Inspection Intent with Robot Behaviour via Neural Radiance Fields
- Health and Wellbeing: Vanessa Nobles — Improving Pharmacogenomics Testing Implementation Through Multi-Stakeholder Involvement to Reduce Inappropriate Prescribing in Primary Care
