Economic impact: SME investment in R&D

The development of RD&I capacity within the Irish SME sector has been identified as a national priority. Amongst our most successful SME-based research programmes in the current portfolio is with Irish Agri-tech company MagGrow who are collaborating with Prof. Michael Coey to study the effects of magnetic fields on the performance of their patented crop spraying technology platform. An initial phase of the project demonstrated a clear magnetic effect resulting in more precise control spray coverage leading to reduced use of chemicals and water of clear environmental benefit. Current work focuses on modelling and empirical work to characterise the influence of the magnets on droplet size distribution, and spray coverage with a view to optimizing designs for current and new applications. MagGrow have recently collaborated with Prof. Coey on a submission to the EIC Pathfinder programme, focusing on further developing this technology in partnership with Wageningen University (NL) and L’Institut Valencià d’Investigacions Agràries (IVIA – ES).

Critical to SME innovation capacity to attract and retain talent, we have effectively used the SFI Industry Fellowship scheme to place AMBER postdoctoral researchers in companies as a means of expanding their R&D capacity as well as providing the researcher with valuable business/commercialisation experience. The most successful fellowships have been with surface technology company, Kastus, and Versatile packaging, an Irish SME based in Co. Monaghan.