Tyndall CEO Dr Kieran Drain © Connor McKenna
Tyndall CEO Dr Kieran Drain © Connor McKenna

Irish institute reports on 26 H2020 projects

Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland, has released its 2015 report showing 26 ongoing Horizon 2020 projects worth in excess of €140m.

With a 65% increase in industry funding and the production of 220 scientific papers, Tyndall – one of Europe’s leading ICT research and development centres – comments on what it calls a ‘good year’, despite its total revenue being fractionally down on 2014.

Through its ASCENT project, for example, which focuses on nanoelectronics research collaborations, Tyndall’s role in the arena was described by its European programme manager Giorgos Fagas: “The programme delivers an open science concept with not just European value but global value, opening infrastructure access and making core tech platforms readily available for development and the validation of tools.”

CEO Dr Kieran Drain added: “Tyndall has been one of the highest performers on the national landscape in European programmes. We see ourselves as a partner to industry and to other research institutions, and our vision is to make those partnerships even more effective.

“Our excellent standards of research and development along with our ability to cover a broad range of technology readiness levels help us to support industry, the national economy, and the wider European research technology organisation (RTO) community.”

He continued: “As a growing innovation hub and leading RTO, our role is to practically translate research excellence for our partners, bringing them to the manufacturing process and proof of concept.

“We also work with industry partners along all steps in European programmes, and act as consultants to SMEs to help them link up with the European funding ecosystem through instruments like Horizon 2020.”

Tyndall’s role in Europe’s RTO community is reinforced by secretary-general of the European association of RTOs, Muriel Attané, who described the research centre as a “great example”.