NUI Galway has linked up with a commercialisation consultancy to earn revenue from its research and development, writes John Collins

An idea that first occurred to an NUI Galway post-graduate researcher as he surfed in Galway Bay could potentially enhance the potential of wave power as a viable alternative energy source.

Robert Healy is working on research in the area of bio-medical engineering and has a background in physics. As a result of a tie-up between NUI Galway and a specialist commercialisation company, Technology from Ideas, Healy's idea will be developed further and, if commercialised, could generate royalty income for both himself and the university.

According to Technology From Ideas (TFI) co-founder Dan Richardson, the company is not just a consultancy that offers advice and seeks partners to work on new research. Instead he styles it a commercialisation company with its own labs and researchers that invests time and money in ideas to take them to the proof-of-concept stage.

The ideas are then sold to customers who can develop them into fully-fledged products, with royalty revenues shared between TFI, the third-level institute and the researcher.

Although it is not exclusively focused on working with the third-level sector, TFI has already signed deals with NUI Galway and Trinity College Dublin. Richardson says that, ultimately, he would like to have agreements in place with all Irish universities and institutes of technology.

"We are agnostic regarding where ideas come from but our focus is on the physical and engineering sciences," says Richardson. "The experience of the co-founders is that if you have bright people in the lab you can take ideas forward."

TFI signed an agreement with NUI Galway's technology transfer office back in March of this year. According to the office's director, Dr Daniel O'Mahony, TFI's business model dovetailed with his own views on research.

"I thought it was an excellent idea," says O'Mahony. "There are lots of researchers who have ideas that they are not able to pursue because they don't have the resources or whatever, but TFI can follow them up.

"Even when I was involved in research in industry, we couldn't pursue all the ideas we had. We had nothing to lose and everything to gain."

The first fruits of the relationship - Healy's idea for improving wave power generation devices - are what O'Mahony classes as "type 1" ideas. These are those insights that fall outside the researchers core area and would probably not be developed in the normal course of events. O'Mahony says that the relationship also covers "type 2" ideas - those which the university has invested in but is not currently in a position to develop using its normal channels.

O'Mahony and Richardson confirm that they are currently close to signing a deal on such a project.

In common with all other Irish third-level colleges, NUI Galway has invested heavily in commercialising its research in recent years and the tie-up with TFI is just the latest chapter. O'Mahony makes the point that NUI Galway has a long pedigree of working with the commercial sector, having been the first Irish university to establish an industry liaison office back in the 1970's.

The technology transfer office now employs eight full-time staff and is also recruiting a business development manager and specialists in the area of bio-technology and information and communications technology.

NUI Galway invested €44 million in research projects last year and, according to O'Mahony, there are currently about 500 research projects being carried out across the university.

O'Mahony's own background is in industry. He was a vice-president with drug company Elan and managed research projects for the company both in the US and Ireland. He joined NUI Galway in 2005 as director of the technology transfer office.

"In the past year we have doubled our patent portfolio and invention disclosures," says O'Mahony. "Now we have about 25 technologies or inventions on the books which can be commercialised over the next one or two years."

Although he won't divulge a figure for revenues achieved from technology licensing, he says he has a target of generating annual income from patents and licensing of 10 per cent of the university's research budget.

NUI Galway works closely with Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland both to fund focused research and spin ideas out from its labs.

While it remains to be seen if the TFI relationship will result in revenues for the university, it does provide another outlet for researchers' work and according to O'Mahony has already helped to create a healthy competitive tension between researchers.

"This [ Healy's idea] would have not been pursued without TFI," says O'Mahony. "It just goes to prove there are lots of good ideas out there."