Nimbus can help with funding for your business
- Enterprise Ireland (EI) Innovation Vouchers (€5K, 50/50 €10K, €5K Horizon 2020 scoping) – Ref: www.innovationvouchers.ie.Good for conducting a minor feasibility, system architecture and prototype development for an investment of €5K and return of €15K from EI over 3 years. You will own all IP created. This is a serious Risk Free R&D option.
- EI Innovation Partnership (€9K Technical Feasibility, 20/80 Development grant (Max €200K), Express (€13K from company, €67K from EI).EI will give a company a soft interest free loan to develop a prototype/service. Once commercialised and profitable, EI will expect to meet a return on their investment (totalling sum of EI financial contribution). All IP created is owned by the Knowledge Provider (CIT for example). Exclusivity of IP to the partnered company/companies is guaranteed – Ref: http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/en/Funding-Supports/Researcher/Funding-to-Collaborate-with-Industry-in-Ireland/Innovation-Partnerships.shortcut.html. Well worth taking advantage of the €9K feasibility at the very least. Again this is a risk free technical feasibility fundwhere the knowledge provider will conduct the feasibility for the company at no cost for the company. Highly recommended.
- Commercialisation Funds (€15K Feasibility, €300K development): This is where ideas emerge from academia but an inventor can approach academia to develop their idea. Once developed, there may be an opportunity for the spinoff, or a relevant company can come in and license the IP to commercialise the outcome. The licensing fees are negotiable (as always) where EI is only interested in recouping their investment.
- TESLA has a suite of supports to assist the growth & development of early stage HPSUs. There is a funded mechanism that can support an Irish company to commercialise a new product/service, internationalise their products/services etc. CIT will help you avail of this great service.
- INTERREG: http://www.interreg4c.eu/interreg-europe/. Calls out in 2015 allow consortium members to test/pilot/demonstrate relevant products/services that they have (or are developing) in different parts of the EU (among other things). We are hot on the tails of these calls.
- Horizon 2020: €79Bn fund. The Nimbus Centre has already been extremely successful in winning H2020 projects.
We’re encouraging everyone to give themselves the best chance to avail of the €79Bn H2020 funding by applying now for a €5K H2020 innovation voucher.This pilot voucher may not be available later, so apply now [free & fast] and use it any time within the next 12 months to explore new opportunities.The voucher eases access to the H2020 SME phase-1 €50,000 100% funded scheme, which leads to even greater funding options. Essentially there is €55K of feasibility work available free!The Nimbus Centre help you all the way from €5K voucher through €50K phase-1 and beyond as described here.
Find out more
For further information please call Sinead Rodgers our ‘Industry Links Program Coordinator’ (sinead.rodgers@cit.ie)
+353 21 433 5569
What else does Nimbus offer?
- Nimbus meets with SMEs all of the time from all domains of business be it Energy, Healthcare, Water, Education, Agriculture, Internet of Things, Smart Cities….We have a special interest in embedded systems, sensors and intelligent systems. If there is innovation involved, we are interested.
If we cannot help you out we can refer you to the experts you need to talk to. It’s a free service. All you have to do is make contact with us.
- We have three testbeds in operation namely the Nimbus based Energy Testbed, our Water Testbed (in Macroom) and our Urban and Rural Community testbed in Mallow. These facilities are open to industry to conduct end user trials for their new products and services. This service is now available to Industry. Contact the above for more details.
- As mentioned, funding is an ever changing landscape. Horizon 2020 is one such funding vehicle among others that have been mentioned. Nimbus is interested in talking to companies that may be interested in taking part in a project consortium where their product development goals can be met at a reduced cost. For example, a participating industry partner can use a project, once relevant, to develop, test and demonstrate their products/services while getting R&D funding thus taking an R&D financial burden off the company. Worth thinking about at least.
What else can be done?
Nimbus can deliver a seminar to discuss the above in more detail.
Nimbus as a Service to Industry
Every company in Cork should know about what is going on in Nimbus and use Nimbus as a vehicle to realise new innovation, gain access to otherwise expensive expertise, work with seasoned engineers (unfortunately most of us have 20 years Industry experience behind us and are getting older more experienced), be up-to-speed on funding opportunities and participate in risk free innovation development.
Who are we?
The Nimbus Centre is a research unit in Cork Institute of Technology employing approximately 100 people with skillsets ranging from electronics, embedded programming, control, user experience, app development, embedded technology systems research, building management systems, among many others.
We had a turnover of €4million in 2014 and will surpass this by end of 2015.
What do we do?
1/3 pure research – EU FP7, Horizon 2020, SFI, IRC funded projects, academic tuition and supervision to PhD level.
2/3 Technology Development with Industry and within Nimbus - A bigger effort goes into developing IP and new product development for and on behalf of Industry. As we are tied to the Third level sector we can leverage R&D funding not normally accessible to industry.
