Ireland’s knowledge transfer sector is thriving – Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey 2017

Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) – the national office that helps business to access and engage with the research base in Ireland – today (21.06.18) published its annual report: ‘KTI Review and Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey 2017’.

The Annual Knowledge Transfer Survey examines business engagement and commercialisation activity in Ireland’s Research Performing Organisations (RPOs). The survey results indicate that collaboration with Irish industry is thriving and there is a robust pipeline of technology licences, spin-out companies and products reaching the market.

Highlights from the report include, in 2017:

• 1,324 active research collaborations with industry
• 24 new products and services launched
• 915 jobs in Active Spin-out Companies
• 21 new spin-out companies created
• 164 licence agreements signed
• 82 percent of collaboration agreements signed with Irish companies

Speaking about the report’s findings, Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan, T.D. said: “Innovation is key to maintaining competitiveness and Irish firms must prioritise innovation if they are to compete and win in a global marketplace. The Government is committed to helping companies turn good ideas into innovative products and services and ultimately jobs.

“The findings of KTI’s 2017 annual report show that KTI and the work of Technology Transfer Offices are making it easier for Irish companies to access the knowledge and expertise available within our research performing organisations.

“With a skilled technology transfer resource in the publicly-funded research sector and an active innovation system, I am confident we can further KTI’s work to make research collaboration and commercialisation simple and accessible.”

Commenting on the report, Dr. Alison Campbell, Director of KTI, said: “At KTI, we help drive commercialisation from Ireland’s research base and it is clear that collaboration with Irish companies is flourishing.

“In 2017, 82 percent of companies that signed collaboration agreements with research performing organisations were based in Ireland and 94 percent of collaboration agreements signed with the SME sector were with Irish SMEs.

“More generally, over 1,000 different companies have signed agreements with RPOs, relating to research-related projects and there are over 300 companies for whom this is a repeat engagement over the past three years.

“Through our long-term monitoring of system performance, we are able to track outcomes from commercialisation and can report a significant number of spin-out companies remain active three of more years after their initial formation and observe a steady state of products and services making it to the market based on ideas and technology from state-funded research.”

The report can be read in full here

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