Four Irish start-ups have managed to secure €50,000 in funding each from the European Union (EU) to develop their technologies around energy, smart cities and disease testing.
The EU funding has come as part of the Horizon 2020 programme, with the most recent success story from an Irish perspective being the €6.4m secured by the Irish consortium known as dRedBox to develop a next-generation cloud computing server.
While a considerably smaller amount of money than that major achievement, this funding falls under Phase 1 of the funding programme for SMEs that have ideas for new products but need help to get to the next stage.
If the companies are successful, Phase 2 of the scheme will see up to €2.5m each paid to them after they have already developed and tested their product, but subsequently need help bringing it to the open market.
The four Irish SMEs chosen for this round of funding are based in Dublin and Limerick, with the EU appearing to favour fledgling companies with an interest in smart cities technology and disease prevention and treatment.
What they do
The two Dublin companies chosen are Hibergene Diagnostics, which is developing real-time molecular diagnostic testing for human infectious diseases using LAMP (Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) technology, as well as Endeco Technologies, which is developing a method of smart-grid optimisation using rate of change of frequency (RoCoF) to rapidly balance power grid network frequency.
In doing so, this will potentially enable more widespread use of unpredictable sources of renewable energy and minimise blackouts.
Meanwhile, in Limerick, DP DesignPro is aiming to commercialise its HydroKinetic Turbine that harnesses the energy of the world’s rivers, canals and estuaries; while Allogen Biotech is attempting to develop a study for the technical and business feasibility of a fast-acting consumer test to detect gluten and other contaminants in food.
Euro sign image via ilolab/Shutterstock
