Engaging your Business in Research
Innovation Vouchers are a great starting point
Since starting my role in DCU as Water Innovation Officer I have worked with many companies on Innovation Vouchers. Innovation Vouchers are an effective way a business can initiate or integrate research into their strategy and business development. The Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher scheme is a way of scoping out potential concepts, opportunities or problems through a knowledge provider such as DCU.
The Water Institute have worked with a range of SMEs on projects around water engineering, water IoT, water transport, waste water compliance, water metrics and water conservation and protection.
Our academic team of experts in the areas as diverse as data analytics, engineering, biotechnology and much more can provide you with the baseline survey and information for an idea or concept you may have. This includes literature reviews on peer reviewed papers, research data collection and information gathering from a series of different databanks, modelling and mapping data through several software platforms and the use of some of the most advanced state-of-the-art research and testing equipment in Ireland. This type of unique access to research can accelerate your idea or concept to its next level or assist you in making important decisions that affect your business.
The Water Institute also use the opportunity of carrying out a voucher to advocate potential future long term partnerships with businesses because having strong long term partnerships can make a tremendous impact on the research we do and on your business. There are ample large scale funding opportunities for knowledge broker and business collaborations and the Innovation Voucher Scheme is a great foundation for the basis of long term alliance.
Now is also a really important time to be considering the future of your business in terms of sustainability. Engaging with the SDGs represents an important opportunity for new markets, investment and partnerships for businesses. Companies that embrace the opportunities and challenges presented by the Sustainable Development Goals will gain a competitive advantage and build resilience in the long term. Every major business international round table debate is discussing the SDGs at the moment and these are going to be very pertinent to all businesses in the next 10 years in terms of sustainability, investment and partnerships. We work with our business partners to ensure each Innovation Voucher project is strategically aligned with the SDGs where our research should contribute to enabling businesses to access and use data for monitoring risks, identifying future trends and reporting their contributions to the SDGs.
The Innovation Vouchers are worth 5k and open to all SMEs to use in Ireland at any stage. We would welcome the opportunity for you to meet with us and discuss your vision. Please contact Ruth.clinton@dcu.ie for more information.
By Ruth Clinton
Water Innovation Officer
https://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Research-Innovation/Companies/Collaborate-with-companies-research-institutes/Innovation-Voucher.shortcut.html