Innovation Taskforce Report
The Innovation Taskforce report was launched last Thursday, March 11 in the Science Gallery by An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen.
I haven’t yet had an opportunity to review the full 122 page report, but I have read the more manageable summary report. I was delighted to see that one of the investigators in my portfolio, Dr. Geraldine Boylan, got a great mention as an example of delivering cutting edge research. Geraldine and her colleagues are based in UCC’s Neonatal Brain Research Group. To quote:
SFI Principal Investigators, Dr. Geraldine Boylan, Dr. Gordon Lightfoot and Dr. Liam Marnane conduct research in the Neonatal Brain Research Group in UCC. The group has developed innovative software to detect seizures in newborn babies with a view to preventing long term brain injury. The research team is collaborating with a global healthcare company, Cardinal Health, to bring their novel technologies to market.
Boylan and her group are notable not only for producing world-class research, and beginning to get an international reputation for doing so, but also for conducting truly inter-disciplinary work, combining computer science, signal processing and neonatal neurology. On top of all of that, the group is looking to commercialise their research through a collaboration with CardinalHealth subsidiary CareFusion, a medical device company with a large operation in Gort, Co. Galway.
Fantastic to read such a worthy group getting the recognition they deserve.
PS for a more complete treatment direct from the horses’ mouths, you can check out posts from two members of the taskforce: Frank Gannon and Chris Horn.