Enterprise Ireland has put out press release telling us that the Irish government has set aside EUR €30 million "to build a stronger and more professional Technology Transfer function within Higher Education Institutions in Ireland".
Ireland has already had great success in attracting technology businesses from abroad. There are even a handful of promising high-tech start ups - the photonics business Firecomms comes to mind.
It seems that Ireland now expects its universities to churn out not just good research and trained scientists. To quote the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, "Technology transfer must become the expected "3rd stream" of legitimate activity for researchers across the innovation system and the Higher Education Institutes themselves."
The idea is that higher education institutions "with significant research activity, will be invited to apply through competitive tender, for support to hire skilled people with expertise and experience, particularly industrial experience, in technology transfer, licensing and relevant aspects of business development and their associated costs".
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