Dramatic increases in spinout activity at Ireland’s universities also seem to refute the Kauffman Foundation’s contention that TTOs are holding back university research. According to figures from TTOs at Ireland’s third-level institutes, 35 spinouts were formed in 2009 across the country’s 10 major institutes, up from an average of 10 per year in previous years. The driving factor behind this growth is the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI), set up by Enterprise Ireland in 2007 to increase the commercialization of IP in Irish universities and to transfer this IP into industry. A key element of the TTSI was the establishment of TTOs across the 10 institutes, which include the seven member bodies of the Irish Universities Association plus Waterford Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.<\/p>\n
The data also show that the number of licenses issued to manufacturers or developers has risen significantly, from an average of 33 per year before the TTSI initiative to 102 last year. “These new figures are hard evidence that supporting university-based research works, and that it can result in the formation of sustainable, viable corporate entities,” says John Scanlan, director of the Office of Commercialization at NUI Maynooth. Of the 35 spinouts established last year, about half are in the information technology space and half in the bioscience\/food arena. Examples include Analyze IQ Limited, an NUI Galway spinout that creates technologies used to analyze complex mixtures of illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals, and contaminants. Other spinouts include the mobile software company Cauwill Technologies, launched by the University of Limerick, and Trezur Limited, a digital music application developer backed by the Dublin Institute of Technology and Enterprise Ireland.<\/p>\n