Published on: Wednesday, 29 June 2016

CIT has won the Spin-Out Company Impact award at the annual Knowledge Transfer Impact Awards (23rd June 2016) at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin for AventaMed. AventaMed was founded by two researchers, Olive O’Driscoll and John Vaughan, from CIT’s MEDIC (Medical Engineering Design and Innovation Centre). The award was presented to the CIT team, Ronan Coleman (Commercialisation Specialist), Josette O’Mullane (Industry Liaison Manager) and Daithi Fallon (Head of MEDIC) by Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

The Knowledge Transfer Impact awards recognise and showcase successful knowledge transfer carried out in publicly funded research organisations for the wider benefit of the economy and society. The awards were presented across seven categories in industry engagement and commercialisation of research and pay tribute to the businesses and research performing organisations involved in knowledge transfer. 

(L-R) Ronan Coleman, Commercialisation Specialist, Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Josette O’Mullane, Industry Liaison Manager, and Daithí Fallon, Head of MEDIC.

AventaMed, is an award-winning Spin-Out company from the Medical Engineering Design and Innovation Centre within CIT. It is a medical device company focused on simplifying Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgical procedures to reduce healthcare costs and improve patient safety. The company’s first product is a medical device which places grommets in childrens’ ears, without the need for a full general anaesthetic.  

In September 2015, AventaMed closed a €1.3 million funding round. This funding has allowed the founders of the company to take up full-time positions at AventaMed and move the business into the Rubicon Centre, CIT’s business incubator.  It has enabled AventaMed to design, develop and certify its Quality Management System to comply with the medical device ISO 13485 standard. AventaMed have grown their team and are focused on completing clinical studies on the product and obtaining regulatory approval. The funding will also allow the company to develop its sales and distribution channels to make the product available to ENT surgeons, worldwide. 

The Industry Liaison Office (ILO) in CIT was instrumental in the successful application for the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund which supported the early development of the product. Once the initial concept had been developed, the CIT ILO managed the Invention Disclosure and Patent strategy. Subsequently the ILO facilitated the creation of the campus company and negotiated a licence agreement to the Intellectual Property and a shareholders agreement in which CIT took a minority shareholding. 

AventaMed is an Enterprise Ireland High Performance Start-Up and was named Emerging Medtech Company of the Year at the Irish Medtech Excellence Awards 2015, as well international recognition and an award in Paediatric Innovation from Children’s National Hospital, Washington DC, a leading provider of paediatric care in America. The company was also awarded Best Overall Early Stage Company at the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn Competition in 2014, winning €100,000 in prize money.

Speaking about the award Orla Flynn, Vice President for External Affairs at CIT said: “We are immensely proud in CIT of this latest public recognition for the achievements of our technology transfer activities, which illustrates the extent of the integration of our various academic, research, and commercialisation units. Well done to everyone involved. CIT is a partner in the UCT Consortium of Technology Transfer Offices with UCC and Teagasc. The consortium was successful in winning three awards at the KTI awards event which clearly demonstrates the impact of research being carried out and commercialised across the consortium.”

Details of all winners is available here 

For further information contact Ronan Coleman, Commercialisation Specialist, Cork Institute of Technology
e: ronan.coleman@cit.ie or t: + 353 21 4335571.