Waterford Institute of Technology has won significant State funding and put together an expert team to ensure highly valuable technologies are commercialised and help boost Ireland’s economy.

Capturing, protecting and bringing to market ideas and know-how are fundamental to ensuring Ireland’s competitive position in the global economy. Waterford Institute of Technology is now helping to effectively transfer those very technologies from the bench in its research and development centres to various corporate boardrooms around the world with the help of €670,000 in finance from Enterprise Ireland.

It has also attracted Dr Michael Whelan to the position of Technology Transfer Manager. While he has spent most of his career in the United States, Dr Whelan is originally from Co Wicklow. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Dublin Institute of Technology, completed a Masters in Computer Science in Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey and a PhD in Electrical Engineering in the State University of New York.

He has extensive experience in the ICT (Information & Communications Technology) industry having spent much of his career in research and development roles at organisations such as Siemens and Philips Electronics. He has also worked extensively with investors in identifying and evaluating new business start-ups as either investment or acquisition opportunities.

Commercialising the results of a research programmes led to his moving to Philips Media as Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer. Most recently he has been an independent technology and management consultant with clients primarily in publishing and media. These have included Hearst, CNBC and Primedia.

Philomena Carton has also joined the team as Senior Administrator in the Technology Transfer Unit. Qualified with a BA in Business Information Systems, she has held a number of positions in the Institute supporting research management and administration in addition to enterprise development training and support programmes.

Welcoming the investment and new appointments, Kathryn Kiely, Industry Services Manager said: “This is a very significant enhancement to WIT’s research support infrastructure. Management of intellectual property and commercialisation of research is a complex and time consuming process.

“Access to professional expertise and training in addition to enhanced collaboration with enterprise will make a huge difference in ensuring our research has maximum impact,” she said.