Enterprise Ireland opens call for applications for the Clinical Innovation Award

Enterprise Ireland in partnership with Cleveland Clinic Innovations is launching their 2019 Clinical Innovation Award.

Introduced in 2011 the Clinical Innovation Award is designed to support clinicians and other healthcare professionals within the Irish healthcare system who have an innovative idea or technological solution which they would like to explore with a view to commercialising. The award will support a commercial feasibility study of their innovation and its potential to improve and transform the clinical impact for patients.

The awarded applicant will receive a €15,000 Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Feasibility Fund to investigate the commercial feasibility of their healthcare innovation and to explore its opportunity in both Irish and international healthcare markets. The applicant will also receive a sponsored visit to the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio in 2019/2020 to showcase their innovation at the Cleveland Clinic Innovation Centre and receive expert feedback from their U.S. clinical and commercial networks.

In addition to the winning application, there will also be two runner-up awards, who will each receive a €15,000 Commercialisation Feasibility Fund to examine the commercial feasibility of their healthcare innovation.

Clinical Innovation Award Launch

Launching the Clinical Innovation Award, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development John Halligan TD said: “I am delighted to officially launch the 2019 Clinical Innovation Award. This Award, supported by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation through Enterprise Ireland, will make a real contribution to supporting growth in the healthcare sector and will pave the way for a new generation of entrepreneurs.”

Deirdre Glenn, Director of Life Sciences, Research and Innovation Division, Enterprise Ireland said: “Enterprise Ireland is proud to support and encourage the culture of innovation that exists at all levels within the Irish healthcare system. The Clinical Innovation Award in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic serves to support these Irish innovations and develop their potential to benefit patients and the wider healthcare system.”

Cyrus Doctor, BioInnovate Fellow, Founder of Starling Surgical and Clinical Innovation Award Winner 2015 said: “As a full-time Orthopedic registrar, I had an idea to change the way operative wounds are closed but were unsure how I could develop it. The Enterprise Ireland-Cleveland Clinic Clinical Innovation Award provided me with the financial support and expert resources to take a small idea and develop it into a new medical device that can have a significant clinical impact on patients. Starling Surgical is now an established start-up company which has raised over €1million investment and has won several prestigious innovation awards. The Clinical Innovation Award has been a life-changing experience; without that support, none of this would have been possible”.

Full details on the 2019 Clinical Innovation Award, including the application form and eligibility criteria, can be accessed on the Enterprise Ireland website: https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/funding-supports/Researcher/Funding-to-Commercialise-Research/Clinical-Innovation-Award.html

The Clinical Innovation Award will close for submissions at 3 pm on Wednesday 31st July.