NovaUCD to Showcase Eleven New Ventures

Nov. 12, 2008 - PRLog -- NovaUCD the innovation and technology transfer centre is showcasing the latest early stage high-tech and knowledge-intensive ventures emerging at UCD at an event next week.

The NovaUCD 2008 Campus Company Development Programme Awards Evening is taking place next Thursday, 20 November at 6 pm in the William Jefferson Clinton Auditorium, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4.

At the Awards Evening each of the 11 new ventures participating on this year’s Programme will deliver a short ‘elevator pitch’ presentation. Three short-listed ventures, selected by an independent evaluation panel, will then present their new business propositions in more detail to an invited audience which will include members of Ireland’s venture capital and business communities.

The overall winner, selected by the evaluation panel will be presented with the NovaUCD 2008 CCDP Award and a cheque for €5,000. The other two ventures will receive runner-up awards and prizes of €3,000 and €2,000 respectively.

The aim of the NovaUCD CCDP, which has run annually since 1996 and which is supported by Enterprise Ireland, is to assist entrepreneurs in bringing their innovative ideas from intellectual concepts to fully developed and sound commercial business enterprises.

The new ventures completing this year’s CCDP are following in the footsteps of former participants such as ChangingWorlds. It was announced last week that ChangingWorlds is being acquired for $60 million by the US-quoted technology company Amdocs. ChangingWorlds which was co-founded by Professor Barry Smyth and Paul Cotter as a spin-out from UCD’s School of Computer Science and Informatics participated on the 1999 CCDP and was that year’s overall winner.

A total of 130 companies and 190 individuals have so far completed this NovaUCD Programme and former participants now collectively employ 700 people. Other previous participants include BiancaMed, Celtic Catalysts, CRDS, Haptica, Locumotion and TopChem.

Bernie Cullinan who has been involved in the software sector for a number of years in both executive and non-executive director roles with companies including SteelTrace and Performix Technologies will be the guest speaker at the Awards Evening. Bernie is currently CEO of Clarigen which provides companies with a dynamic solution for employee transaction management and is the immediate past Chair of the Irish Software Association

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NovaUCD, which officially opened in October 2003, is University College Dublin’s €11 million Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre. NovaUCD is responsible for the implementation of UCD policies relating to the commercialisation of intellectual property arising from UCD’s research programmes.