Commercialisation Award Winners 2011

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Lifescience and Food Commercialisation Award 2011
Industrial Technologies Commercialisation Award 2011
ICT Commercialisation Award 2011

Enterprise Ireland Lifescience and Food Commercialisation Award 2011

Clinical Support Information Systems Ltd (CSIS) is a company built around the STOPP-START technology developed at University College Cork by an inter-disciplinary group of clinicians, pharmacists and computer scientists. Gerry Moran, the CEO of CSIS, is working in partnership with the researchers, the UCC Technology Transfer Office and Enterprise Ireland to bring the STOPP-START to market.

Watch the Video - Lifescience and Food Commercialisation Award 2011

Enterprise Ireland Lifescience and Food Commercialisation Award Winner 2011 : Clinical Support Information Systems Ltd (CSIS)

The research team behind the technology which was developed with commercialisation funding from Enterprise Ireland are: Denis O'Mahony, Stephen Byrne, Sean Og Murphy, Cristin Ryan, Ken Brown and Cormac Sreenan.

STOPP/START is designed specifically with the older patient in mind and the particular medication problems encountered in this age group (older people consume about half of all prescription medicines in Ireland and Europe).

STOPP/START lists the common instances of potentially inappropriate medicines (STOPP list) and potential prescribing omissions (START list); the presence of STOPP medicines and the absence of START medicines may be highly detrimental to the older patient, in particular the frailer person with multiple chronic disorders. The UCC research team has successfully converted the STOPP/START rules to an electronic prototype which has very significant market potential as a tool for routine assessment of older people’s medication, with a view to optimization of drug therapy and avoidance of preventable side-effects. Drug-related morbidity and mortality are recognized internationally as a highly significant public health problem; STOPP/START provides one possible method for addressing the growing problem of medication-related morbidity and mortality in older people. The total addressable market for the STOPP-START technology is estimated to be €300 million in Europe and up to €1 billion globally.

CSIS is taking this technology to market by collaborating with IT providers in the healthcare sector targeting primary care, pharmacies and hospitals in export markets in the UK, Europe, USA and other jurisdictions.

Enterprise Ireland Industrial Technologies Commercialisation Award 2011

Sonex Metrology have won this award for the exemplary way in which the team, led by Mike Cunningham, set about commercialising an idea emanating from the research of Prof Patrick McNally in DCU.

Watch the Video - Industrial Technologies Commercialisation Award 2011

Enterprise Ireland Industrial Technologies Commercialisation Award Winner 2011 : Sonex Metrology Ltd

The team members are Prof Patrick McNally, Mike Cunningham CEO, Dr. Stephen Daniels, Fiachra Green, Dylan Fitzgerald.

Mike’s first exposure to the technology was in May 2010 when he evaluated the commercial potential of the technology on behalf of Enterprise Ireland. The technology impressed him and he subsequently pulled together and inspired a very effective spin-out team. The team has spun-out of DCU and has successfully raised enough seed investment to enable the company to embark on productising their technology.

In a typical semiconductor fabrication plant, the manufacturing process to make one wafer takes 4-6 weeks but the product cannot be functionally tested until the last few days of that process. Quality control and process control are paramount since there is millions of Euro in work in progress in the Fab at any one time. A defect generated anywhere in the process, could cause millions of Euro of scrap.

The Sonex technology focuses on detecting mechanical defects in semiconductor and solar cell wafers that are likely to lead to catastrophic failures such as wafer breakage and delamination. There are other tools that can detect these defects, but, the Sonex photo-acoustic technology is unique since it is non-destructive, does not have to touch the wafer and can detect problems on the surface and deep in the silicon below opaque layers. These unique features allied to its low cost, make the technology eminently suitable and competitive for in-line process monitoring.

The company plans to productise the technology over the coming years. The initial product offering will be targeted at the semiconductor industry and will be a stand-alone instrument for detecting mechanical defects above and below the surface in silicon wafers.

Enterprise Ireland ICT Commercialisation Award 2011

Dr. Lacey is Co-founder, Director and Chief Technical Officer of Glanta Ltd. which is located in the Trinity Enterprise Centre. Gerry invented and developed the image processing IP which is at the heart of Glanta’s hand hygiene training and assessment system.

Watch the Video - ICT Commercialisation Award 2011

Enterprise Ireland ICT Commercialisation Award Winner 2011 : Dr. Gerry Lacey, Glanta Ltd.

The system provides health care professionals with repeatable, real-time objective feedback on the effectiveness of their hand hygiene technique compared to the widely accepted World Health Organisation (WHO) hand wash protocol.

The WHO have identified hand hygiene as the single most important factor in the spread of healthcare Acquired Infections, which in the US alone kills 100,00 people and costs US BN$35-45 annually.

Glanta is successful testing and trialling the Surewash system in a number of hospitals here and abroad, including the Mater Private Hospital.

As well as creating the IP, Gerry has been instrumental and directly involved in all of the above commercialisation activities, which is what makes him an exemplary winner of the Enterprise Ireland ICT Commercialisation Award for 2011.