Last week a breakfast seminar was held on Horizon 2020 where David Harmonn, member EU Commission Research, Innovation and Science Member Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, addressed industry and academia to inform them of what to expect from this support programme. Within the cabinet, David has responsibilities for international relations on behalf of DG Research within the European Commission. This includes dealing with international agreements in the fields of research, innovation and science that are concluded or operated by the European Union with third countries, including, for example, with the United States of America, China, India, Japan and Canada.
The seminar was also addressed by industry representatives that have been involved in previous projects funded through the EU Commission. This included John Cullen, a Company Director with 22 years experience in the design and manufacture of consumer goods including luxury packaging, toys and games and high volume food packaging. Through EU funding John has established and coordinated three International Research and Development Consortiums for the development of new technology with the assistance of the European Commission under both the Framework 7 and CIP protocols.
The seminar will also be addressed by John Hickey, CEO of Cloudium Systems. John has held senior management and engineering positions in Digital, 3Com, Silaria and Avocent. John has an extensive background in ASIC and software development across multiple business sectors and has broad experience of key functional areas including R&D, marketing, strategy and business management.
Access to this funding is enabled through financial and administrative support in Enterprise Ireland. Michael Murphy from EI was also present to inform industry and academia of this support.
Assumpta Harvey Manager of the LINC at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown said of the event, “Even though Horizon2020 is not officially launched, it was important that industry and academia came together early to look at ways of collaborating through EU funding to enhance the industrial leadership in Ireland and also to strengthen the research capability in the academic community and hopefully then strengthen our post-graduate base from Ireland”.
