The winners of the National Innovation Awards, which are designed to highlight the importance of innovation and technology in Irish business, are to be announced today.
Seven companies have been shortlisted for the three categories of awards, small, medium and large businesses which are sponsored by The Irish Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers and are part of the Government's Science, Technology and Innovation Awareness Programme run by Forfas.
Mr Dermot O'Doherty, senior adviser on innovation policy at Forfas said: "The important thing that these awards do is reward a consistent pattern of technology management and innovativeness in companies.
"The awards reflect the innovative capacity of Ireland across all industries, which has seen research and Development expenditure by indigenous industry double since the early 1990's."
Mr Doherty said that innovation can change the status and position of a country, and more and more companies, both indigenous and multinational, are developing and producing new products in Ireland.
"We've jumped up the scale in innovation terms, with Ireland now ranked as the 10th most innovative country in the OECD and 6th in the European Union. Innovation is the key to growth and development and even more traditional industries are spending more on R&D which increases both the competitiveness and attractiveness of Ireland."
