Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Simon Coveney TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD and the Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Dara Calleary TD, recently announced funding of a further €58.8 million to 12 new projects under the Disruptive Technology and Innovation Fund (DTIF) for diverse and potentially life-changing disruptive technology projects.

Congratulations to SSPC investigators from the University of Limerick, Professor Sarah Hudson, Associate Professor Emmet O’Reilly, Dr Kieran McGourty and Professor Vivek Ranade, who are involved in two projects funded by the Disruptive Technology and Innovation Fund (DTIF).

The projects and teams:
The Selio System is a pre-biopsy intervention device which prevents haemorrhage occurring before kidney or liver biopsy takes place, thereby facilitating same day release of patients – €4,152,688 – Professor Sarah Hudson, Associate Professor Emmet O’Reilly, Dr Kieran McGourty.

1. Selio Medical Ltd.: Selio is a dedicated medical device company specializing in development of novel, disruptive medical devices to reduce complications associated with percutaneous needle access procedures. Selio’s vision is to become a global leader in the standard of care for biopsy patients using a novel, simple, safe and effective Selio Sealant System.
2. InverMed Teoranta: InverMed Teoranta specialises in Overmoulding for assembly, Micro Overmoulding, Tipping & Overmoulding of various shafts including Polyimide, Polyamide, Pebax, PEEK and also metals. InverMed make a range of specific discrete mouldings, often technically difficult and also complete assembly and printing of moulded product. Downstream processes include ultrasonic cleaning, degating & assembly, RFI shielding, various gluing and welding operations.
3. University of Limerick: Bernal BioLabs housed in the Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick contains tissue culture, mechanical testing, imaging, bioanalytical and molecular biology infrastructure suites. The Bernal Institute hosts a multidisciplinary team of world-leading materials scientists and engineers at UL. Bernal represents a €100m+ investment in world-class characterisation, modelling and manufacturing facilities concentrated in 20,000 m of high quality research space. Bernal research focuses on the synthesis, characterisation and design of nano, meso and macro structured materials.
4. Wellcome HRB Clinical Research Facility at St. James’s Hospital (CRF): CRF located in the heart of St. James’s Hospital is Ireland’s largest acute academic teaching hospital with a proven track record in completing clinical trials of medical devices and investigational medicinal products. CRF’s team of 123 investigators has worked in 19 disease area, undertaken 81 regulated Phase I /II to Phase III clinical trials and 132 observational and interventional clinical studies.

The BioBridge project will make biopharmaceutical manufacturing vastly more efficient by building new laboratory methods and computer models to design better manufacturing processes – €3,182,042 – Professor Vivek Ranade, UL.

1. ValitaCell Ltd
2. Data Chemist Ltd T/A Terminus DB
3. University of Limerick (UL)
4. Digital Manufacturing Ireland (DMI) CLG

The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is a €500 million fund established under the National Development Plan (NDP) in 2018. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment manages the DTIF with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. The purpose of the fund is to drive collaboration between Ireland’s world-class research base and industry as well as facilitating enterprises to compete directly for funding in support of the development and adoption of these technologies. The aim is to support investment in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies and applications on a commercial basis.

More information: https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/what-we-do/innovation-research-development/disruptive-technologies-innovation-fund/