Involving a €23m investment, the gateways are located in eight institutes of technology: Athlone IT, Cork Institute of Technology, Dublin Institute of Technology, IT Tallaght, IT  Tralee,  Letterkenny  Institute  of  Technology,  Limerick Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology.

Designed to act as the ‘R&D arm’ of companies, the technology gateways will focus on delivering technology solutions through collaborative projects with the research teams in the institutes of technology.

Expertise  is  available  to companies in technology areas such as applied biotechnology,  connected  media,  biodiagnostics,  engineering  materials, pharmaceutical  and  healthcare,  mobile  services,  coatings  innovations, embedded systems,  polymer  technologies,  intelligent  sensor  systems, photonics and wireless solutions.

“The Government’s  primary  goal  is to generate growth and create employment in towns  and  cities around Ireland,” said Minister Sherlock. “The technology gateway network will give companies  all  over  Ireland  access  to  technology  solutions  for their business  challenges.  Enterprise Ireland’s  involvement  in  this process ensures  the  commercial value of these solutions can be converted into new products and services so that quality employment opportunities can be grown and maintained."

“Enterprise Ireland and the teams in the technology gateways are committed to solving the technical challenges faced by companies in their efforts to develop  new  products  and services,” said Declan Lyons of Enterprise Ireland. "The beauty of this network is that if one gateway  doesn’t have the answer, they can put out a call to the other 11 in the network to find it.”

Companies already engaging  with  the  technology gateways include Openet Telecom,  Dairymaster, Eurotech Renewables, Shasta Ltd, General Paints and Mincon.