2017 Press Releases

UCC spinout InfiniLED in the limelight with KTI award

12 May 2017
Professor Anita Maguire, Vice President For Research & Innovation, UCC; Professor Patrick O'Shea, President, UCC; Dr David Corkery, Technology Transfer Operations Manager, UCC.

University College Cork and InfiniLED Ltd have been honoured with Knowledge Transfer Ireland's Impact Award for Mature Spin-out Company.

The award recognises the success of the UCC spinout company InfiniLED Limited, which was acquired last year by Oculus in a multimillion-euro deal.

InfiniLED was spun out of UCC in 2011. It developed breakthrough low-power display technology based on research from Brian Corbett’s team at UCCs Tyndall National Institute. The acquisition will see low-power LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology developed in Ireland being applied to enhance performance in VR devices.

Minister of State for Training, Skills and Innovation John Halligan, TD, presented the team with their award at the Knowledge Transfer Impact Awards ceremony in Dublin.

The award recognises the success of the UCC spinout company InfiniLED Limited, which was acquired last year by Oculus in a multimillion euro deal.

The KTI Impact Award winners are selected by a panel of international technology transfer experts from the public and private sectors.

The judges stated that they “were impressed by the trajectory of this company, strong technology development had led to external validation and valuation of the business. There has been clear impact in terms of job creation and an enduring relationship with the university.”

InfiniLED commercialised a new generation of LED technology that creates high-quality displays with reduced power consumption, extending the battery life for portable devices such as cameras, mobile phones, laptops and VR devices. The InfiniLED displays consume 20-40 times less power than normal LCD and OLED displays and are capable of producing four times more light with better contrast and colour range. The company’s technology outperforms widely available standard display technologies, resulting in significant reductions in power use.

Pleun Maaskant, National Institute; Anthony Morrissey, Office of Technology Transfer (OTT), UCC; Brian Corbett, Tyndall National Institute.

Speaking about the award, Professor Anita Maguire, Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC said this award also “recognises the work that the UCC Technology Transfer team put into the successful establishment, growth, and achievement of the company.

“The deal is important for the future of the Tyndall microLED technology development and it is also a reflection of our ambition for technology transfer to create valuable companies from world class research groups like this Tyndall team, that can grow and create positive impact for our society, the economy in the region and nationally. Oculus has started to increase its workforce here in Cork and is creating valuable job opportunities. This is exactly what we hoped would happen.”

UCC is the lead partner in the Bridge Network Consortium of Technology Transfer Offices. One of its partner organisations, Teagasc, was recognised for the Licence2Market Impact Award for the use of Teagasc IP by Ornua Co-Operative in cheese manufacture.

Professor Maguire added that "the success of our UCC team and our consortium colleagues in being shortlisted first and in winning national awards again this year is very pleasing. The continued recognition of our achievements in technology transfer at a national level reflects the importance that we place on it here in UCC and the importance of maximising the impact of our research.”

The KTI Impact Awards recognise and showcase the success in knowledge transfer carried out in Irish Higher Education Institutes and in publicly funded research organisations for the wider benefit of the economy and society. Across seven categories this year, the awards recognised top performance in industry engagement and commercialisation of research.

University College Cork

Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh

College Road, Cork T12 K8AF

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