A further €1.5 million in funding is to be made available for businesses this year through the Innova programme for North/South collaboration.
The funding, announced today, is part of an all-island research and development initiative run by InterTradeIreland, which facilitates cross-Border partnerships.
The project aims to bring companies, particularly SMEs, into partnerships where they can share risks as well as ideas, and speed up the development of products into the marketplace.
Innovative products
“The Innova programme provides North/South business partnerships with more than just funding,” said Grant Gilmore, Innova operations manager at InterTradeIreland.
“Other key benefits include expediting the development of new or improved innovative products, processes or services whilst providing a quicker route to market and a greatly increased rate of commercialisation.”
To date, InterTradeIreland has given more than €8 million to companies North and South to commercialise existing partnerships.
Two companies already benefiting from the initiative are Dundalk-based Vennetics and Belfast-based Instil, developers of Moozler which provides services to customers through the internet without using either mobile or VoIP service providers.