Firms to get €5,000 government grant

Small firms can now apply for ‘knowledge vouchers’ worth €5,000 each which can be used to gain research from third-level colleges to help improve business opportunities.

Applications from small firms seeking solutions to their “knowledge questions” are now being sought for the third round of Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Vouchers initiative.

To date, more than 350 small companies across the State have been given vouchers.

The vouchers provide €5,000 worth of funding to access the expertise in third-level colleges.

The programme which has been running for six months, now has 22 knowledge providers nationwide, offering their research, technical and business expertise to companies across the country.

Michael Ahern, Minister for Innovation Policy, announcing the third round of the voucher scheme, said building productive relationships between companies and the third-level institutions in their region is a critical strand of the Government’s strategy.

Many of the innovation vouchers that were awarded in earlier rounds are about to be cashed in as projects around the country near completion.

A typical project can be completed in two weeks.

Highest take-up of the scheme are the counties with the highest participation rates to date are Dublin, Cork and Galway.

“These areas are well served by third-level research institutes and other public research bodies,” added Minister Ahern.

“This is very encouraging from an industry-research collaboration perspective.”

The top five questions that are of most concern to small firms are digital media, e-commerce, communications technologies, consultancy related services and education.

Article courtesy of the Evening Echo newspaper.