A FEW OF MY colleagues from Tipperary Institute meet to discuss outreach strategy tomorrow while the Department of Enterprise announces the awarding of its first knowledge vouchers to small companies. The two events are related, primarily because Tipperary's leading ICT applications experts are not part of the vetted list of knowledge providers. According to Silicon Republic, "Clonakilty-based Applied Thermal Imagery was the first company to receive a €5,000 Innovation Voucher from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as part of the Government’s €10m fund for small enterprises."
Information dropping into my e-mail box from Enterprise Ireland confirms the offer. Nearly 200 small companies will receive these vouchers and they can exchange their vouchers for advice and expertise from any one of the 21 participating knowledge providers, drawn mainly from Ireland’s third-level institutions. Firms can also pool vouchers to leverage the value of the knowledge they can purchase from the institutions.
Silicon Republic -- "Innovation Vouchers Scheme Gets Underway"
