37 researchers have recently completed a new University College Dublin (UCD) Commercialisation Bootcamp which has been delivered for the first time. The Bootcamp, devised and delivered by staff of the Office of the Vice-President for Innovation, took place over a 5 weeks period at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs.
The overall aim of the Bootcamp, which will run twice a year, is to strengthen the pipeline of commercial opportunities arising from UCD and National College of Art and Design (NCAD) research programmes.
The Bootcamp’s objective is to equip academic researchers, staff and postgraduate research students with the knowledge, skills and understanding of the commercialisation process. On completion of the Bootcamp participants will have developed a solid awareness of what it takes to build a commercialisation plan around their research outputs.
To be eligible to take part on the Bootcamp participants need to have a specific piece of research or technology which they believe is suitable for commercialisation and which can benefit from the support of the Bootcamp.
Caroline Gill, Innovation Education Manager, who co-devised the Bootcamp, says: “By participating on the Bootcamp researchers will gain an insight into key commercialisation issues such as clearly identifying the market problem or need and how their proposed solution or technological innovation solves this problem; commercial exploitation routes; who do they need on their team and what are their funding requirements.”
Participants on the first Bootcamp, represented a total of 19 potential commercial projects emerging from research currently taking place at UCD (32 participants and 16 projects) and at NCAD (5 participants and 3 projects), a recognised collegeo f UCD.
One of the participants on the initial Bootcamp was Dr Peter Richardson (pictured), a postdoctoral researcher in UCD’s School of Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering. Dr Richardson, along with his colleague Dr Andrew Keane, participated on the Bootcamp to further develop their commercial ideas for smart grid applications in power systems.
The goal of their project is to develop software tools which will enable power systems to successfully incorporate new technologies and energy resources, such as wind generation, on existing electricity networks.
Providing power system operators, planners, and analysts with novel simulation software tools, together with new analytical techniques for studying and optimising power system operation will, they believe, play an important part in the delivery of sustainable and secure power systems and will form an integral part of developing smarter grids.
Dr Peter Richardson comments: “After completing the UCD Commercialisation Bootcamp at NovaUCD we now have a deeper awareness and understanding of what it takes to build a commercialisation plan around our research outputs. Participating on the Bootcamp has been a great experience and we are now looking forward to putting all we have learned into commercial practice in the near future.”