Aim

The objective of the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI) is to increase the level of intellectual property (IP) transferred to industry from research in Higher Education Institutions and to facilitate the development of high quality and effective systems and policies to ensure that the IP is identified, protected and transferred, where possible into companies in Ireland.

Technology Transfer Offices (TTO's) funded

Enterprise Ireland's Technology Transfer Support Unit will manage the five year TTSI (2007-2011) which has a budget of €30 million.  To date, 9 institutes, listed in the table below, have been approved for funding totalling €15.6million.   This investment in 29 trained technology transfer professionals will ensure that over the next 5 years Ireland's technology transfer offices are adequately resourced to effectively carry out their role of capturing research results for economic benefit, as an integral part of the research environment.

Institutes of Technology

A customised initiative for the Institutes of Technology to support their needs has begun.  When fully implemented this initiative will support areas such as sector-wide policies and procedures for the IoT's, assistance with case management, operational costs, training and communications.

Targets

For each institution annual targets will be monitored including:

• patenting activity
• number of licences and
• number of start-ups companies

The supports and investment introduced through the TTSI should result in an increase in such outputs and an increasingly more streamlined approach to the conversion of ideas onto such tangible results for all our benefits.

Mary Gillick +353 (1) 8082691