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Innovation News
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May 17, 2012 |  |
I’ve been throwing this term around as much as possible in 2011. The Karma economy, it’s an extension of social responsibility in business, but so much more. It is not a pandering thing, you have to really believe in it. |
 Carrickfergus-based The Luxury Planter Collection is being assisted by Invest Northern Ireland to develop its international exports.
The company has analysed various markets including the Baltics and the US in terms of sales opportunities.
As a result of the analysis, the company is keen to exploit the identified US opportunities further and has been assisted by Invest NI to take part in this week’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York to build on initial sales in the US of its range of luxury planters. |
 DBR Trading Ltd in Fivemiletown has been assisted by Invest Northern Ireland to perfect an innovative device that makes administering drugs to cows easier and safer for vets and farmers.
The company used an Invest NI Innovation Voucher to seek design support from experts at the InnoTech Centre of the South West College in Cookstown to carry out development work on the Klassoo Cattle Restraint. The device was produced by David Russell, a Fivemiletown-based engineer and Liam Keelagher, a Tyrone dairy farmer with input from a local vet. |
 Following a substantial financial boost of £2.2m into the business last year, east Belfast-based printing company, GPS Colour Graphics, today announced a further £300,000 investment in short run digital print and new innovative technology as it celebrated its 100th anniversary at an event in Titanic Belfast.
GPS, Northern Ireland’s largest commercial in-house digital and litho printing company, also unveiled a new corporate identity and website and launched its unique ‘PrintStore’ software. |
 Pulse Eco Shower, a Londonderry company, has developed an innovative showerhead with assistance from Invest Northern Ireland that effectively counters bacterial threats, including Legionella and Pseudomonas, and virtually eliminates limescale clogging.
The company has received Invest NI financial and technical support to both develop and market the new showerhead, a recent winner of the prestigious Green Hospitality Award. The product “Pure Pulse”, which has been tested by experts at Queen’s University’s internationally respected Questor Centre in Belfast, is now being trialled by a major healthcare trust and following extensive testing is currently being used by a number of water authorities in Great Britain. |
 With public sector spending cuts impacting on large capital projects and the continued lack of liquidity for small businesses presenting significant challenges, there is no doubt that our economy faces extremely challenging times. But despite the apparent incessant doom and gloom, Invest NI continues to work with businesses throughout Northern Ireland, implementing a range of initiatives to address these challenges, and encouraging new and existing businesses to raise their sights and broaden their horizons.
Since it was launched in November, our Boosting Business campaign has taken over 3,500 enquiries from businesses keen to learn about the range of support we can offer to help them drive their innovation, increasing their adaption of technology, enhance the skills of their workforce, grow their exports and, ultimately, create jobs. |
The First Minister and the deputy First Minister have added their congratulations to the Belfast-based Cinemagic project following its receipt of a Business Innovation Award for Philanthropy in Los Angeles.
The Business Innovation prize was presented at the conclusion of a week-long celebration of achievements across a range of categories including Design, Technology Service, Provision, Philanthropy and Marketing & Communication held in Beverly Hills.
First Minister Rt Hon Peter D. |
 After the past couple of weeks, surely there is no one in the world who doesn’t know of Titanic and of Belfast’s role as her creator. What a great job has been done by all! The crowds are flocking to Titanic Belfast and on to the rest of the historic shipyard site. |
Northern Ireland could have thriving cultural quarters that could rival Covent Garden and Temple Bar if the right support is given to the creative industries, University of Ulster academics told a Stormont Committee today.
A delegation from the University urged the Northern Ireland Assembly's Culture, Arts and Leisure to push the Stormont Executive to develop an economic strategy for the creative industries that identified global as well as local market opportunities.
Professor Ian Montgomery, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and the Built Environment told MLAs: "The creative industries generate £0. |
April 25, 2012 |  |
Enhance the Remote User Experience with 10–25 times Faster Graphics, Animations & Response Times!
Blaze Accelerator - a software breakthrough in RDP compression and acceleration - addresses the challenge of slow remote desktop connections. You can deliver a superior local PC-like experience and fast remote desktop connections, while reducing RDP bandwidth consumption by up to 25 times - across WANs and congested LANs. |
 A University of Ulster academic is spearheading the latest phase of a multi-million pound joint UK and Indian research project to boost India's Internet capabilities.
Professor Gerard Parr, who is Chair in Telecommunications Engineering on the University's Coleraine campus, is the UK's principal investigator for a £10 million India-UK ICT research consortium of nine research-leading UK universities.
The £10 million project – the largest between the two countries and which will employ 200 scientists - will help improve the quality of millions of lives in India and the UK. |
April 17, 2012 |  |
 Key leaders in the life and health science sector from Boston will once again take stage at the 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference (TMED4) on 10-11th May in Derry/Londonderry to share how their region has become a global hub for innovation in the life and health sciences.
Trung Do, Executive Director of Business Development at Partners HealthCare will share with delegates his organisation’s success in stimulating healthcare innovations from a healthcare providers perspective.
Trung explains ‘Partners HealthCare is a global leader in quality patient care, medical education and biomedical research. |
 Wilson Agri, based near Coleraine, has won business worth more than £150,000 from Hungary for its innovative cow cubicles and mattresses following its participation in an Invest Northern Ireland trade mission last year.
The company, which already sells around 70 per cent of its products outside Northern Ireland, is supplying cubicles and mattresses to farms in Hungary through a dealer in Budapest. The agreement, the company’s first business in central Europe, was signed during the mission to Hungary and Slovenia last June. |
With support from Invest Northern Ireland, Ardboe company, Northern Engineering, has developed an innovative new device that will help farmers and vets to more easily check and medicate cows’ feet.
The company has invested over £35,000 in the cow tipping crush device and has been offered almost £16,000 of support by Invest NI, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
Northern Engineering was formed in 2003 by Joe Quinn and his wife Kathleen, to design and manufacture wall-mounted cattle cubicles for the agricultural market. |
March 30, 2012 |  |
 A team of five school students, including one from Bangor’s South Eastern Regional College, who work-shopped the project Smart Pipe: An automated water circulation anti-freezing system were chosen as the best overall group at the 2012 BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp, held at University College Dublin. They were evaluated by a panel of expert judges and course mentors and selected as the team that developed most during the programme. The members of the team are Adam Torrens (19) from South Eastern Regional College, Bangor; Matt Murtagh White (17) from Kilkenny College, Kilkenny; Emer Creedon (16) from Regina Mundi College, Cork; Deirdre Harford (17) from Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan, Dublin; and Megan Doyle (16) from Skerries Community College, Dublin. |
March 28, 2012 |  |
 Xperience, one of Northern Ireland’s longest established IT solutions companies, has announced a new contract with Carnroe Supplies, which the Kilrea & Coleraine based business claims will provide it with the resource and expertise to grow its business locally and expand its products into international export markets.
One of the 75% of Northern Ireland’s businesses which are family run, forming the cornerstone of the local economy, Carnroe specialises in corporate clothing and leisure wear. The company has continued to grow and increase its market share in the difficult trading conditions over the last few years, having increased its turnover by over 15% since 2008. |
 WorldDesk Ltd., a leading provider of desktop virtualization software, has today launched their platform in 64-bit. WorldDesk in 64-bit will allow all Windows 7 users to carry their personalised desktop around on any device, from a simple USB drive, to a smartphone or iPod. |
 Magherafelt start-up company Riddell Tech Ltd has marked a major milestone for the University of Ulster by becoming the 200th company to tap into the skills and expertise of specialists at the University through the Invest Northern Ireland Innovation Voucher programme.
Funded by Invest NI and Enterprise Ireland, the Innovation Voucher Programme offers businesses support worth up to £4,000 (€5000 in the Republic of Ireland) to access innovative business solutions to collaborate with universities and colleges throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Riddell Tech used an innovation voucher to access specialist help from academics in the Centre for Sustainable Technologies to develop a flexible roof mounted solar thermal panel for farm buildings. |
Around 250 local companies attended Invest Northern Ireland’s Online Marketing Conference in March 2009 to hear how George Wright of US company Blendtec achieved a 700% increase in blender sales by using the latest online sales and marketing techniques. Pictured with Mr Wright is Tracy Meharg, Invest NI’s Managing Director of Innovation and Capability Development.
Information and communication technology (ICT) can offer real benefits to your business, and investments in new technologies often have a direct effect on profitability. |
 A Lisburn-based company is the driving force behind a new innovative brake light testing device.
The product, called The Extra Foot, has been designed by the company of the same name to enable a motorist to quickly and safely check the operation of their brake lights.
The company has been backed by the Ulster Bank following interest from Canada. |
March 05, 2012 |  |
 Where frustration once ruled, customer care at your fingertips delivers a more satisfying customer experience and reduces calls to contact centres by 60%
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, 27 February, 2012 – Leading Customer Experience Management (CEM) application company, SpeechStorm, will be launching its Mobile CEM applications at MWC 2012, and will be showcasing this new approach in the provision of customer self-service and contact on the ‘Northern Ireland Smart At Work’ stand,1E67 in Hall 1.
SpeechStorm Mobile CEM for iPhone and Android helps organisations reduce call volumes, make more efficient use of resources and improve customer experience by combining effective self-service and a unique way of managing interaction with the contact centre.
SpeechStorm Mobile CEM includes a range of out-of-the-box applications for common self-service functions, which, studies show, account for up to 60% of calls to contact centres. |
March 02, 2012 | |
 C-TRIC, Northern Ireland’s award winning healthcare innovation hub is announcing a new call of it’s highly successful Bio- Entrepreneur Programme.
C-TRIC based companies are developing a wide range of novel products and services for improved healthcare including imaging technology to measure bone density, improved clinical communication using cloud computing, smart phone apps and devices to manage diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, technologies to manage and audit patient care and novel cancer diagnostics.
To date C-TRIC has supported 10 companies through it’s Bioentrepreneur Programme. |
March 02, 2012 |  |
 Welcome to the world of Jellyflug - the latest computer game about to hit the mobile gaming world with a splash! Play as Grash the microbe, as he traverses the vast world of microorganisms. Everyday human actions change everything in this world of Jellyflug. |
 A £6m development which will accommodate up to 500 knowledge jobs at the Northern Ireland Science Park was ‘topped off’ this week during a ceremony led by the Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster.
The new facility which is expected to open in August 2012 is already fully let and will become home to both thriving local start-ups and major global corporations including Kana Software, Export Technologies, Fidessa and Parity. The development is the second of three buildings known as ‘The Concourse’ and is funded by Belfast Harbour. |
 As the government officials and elected members settle, to read, digest and hopefully take heed of the various comments and suggestions made by all of us, in response to the latest draft programme for government, economic strategy and investment plan, I thought I’d share with you my observations on our process at the Science Park. As a “humble functionary” [Sir Humphrey’s phrase from my favourite sit-com] myself in a previous life and therefore, thankfully, banned from political or other public comment, I was only reluctantly and recently induced into such activity on behalf of the Science Park. Mind you, I have always enjoyed advocacy on behalf of others as, when the self is removed, it allows a greater sense of freedom. |
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