A SHANNON company is set to receive a share of €10 million in funding from the EU’s scientific research fund. AltraTech has been named among five small Irish companies with big ideas awarded with the funding to help get their ideas to market.
The company has developed a portable battery-operated kit for the quick detection of the HIV virus. It is expected that the inexpensive, disposable kit could dramatically improve HIV management worldwide.
The five Irish SMEs will receive EU grants of up to €2.5 million each from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 2 funding.
The grant is for innovative small firms to get ideas from the lab to the market and help generate growth and jobs in Europe.
Through the funding, the SMEs can finance innovation activities such as demonstration, testing, piloting, scaling up and miniaturisation, in addition to developing a mature business plan for their product. The companies involved in the projects will also benefit from 12 days of business coaching.
The other companies to share in the funding are DP DesignPro Ltd, Abbeyfeale, County Limerick; Luxcel Biosciences in Cork; Axonista Ltd, Dublin and Slainte Beoga Teor of Galway.
This brings to 26 the total number of Irish SMEs to be granted Phase 2 funding under the SME Instrument since its launch in 2014.
The European Commission received 1,534 project proposals by January 18, the first cut-off date for Phase 2 in 2017. Since the launch of the programme in January 2014, 641 SMEs have been selected for funding under Phase 2.
Most projects are proposed by a single SME but some companies team up to elaborate a project. The next cut-off for SME Instrument Phase 2 is on April 6.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.