Local inventors are being urged to follow in the footsteps of Ballynahinch’s Greg Maguire.
The Northern Ireland Science Park is calling on innovators from County Down to INVENT the future!
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Invent 2015 has almost arrived. Do you have an innovation you could enter?[/caption]
The Science Park’s INVENT 2015 search for innovations with the greatest commercial potential has just been launched, and is seeking applications across six categories:
1.) Creative Media and Consumer Internet 2.) Agri-Food 3.) Life and Health 4.) Engineering 5.) Electronics 6.) Enterprise Software
In October Ballynahinch man Greg Maguire, who owns gaming company Inlifesize, won the ‘Creative Media and Consumer Internet’ category at the INVENT 2014 final at Titanic Belfast.
Greg, who is a Professor of Animation at the University of Ulster, won a slice of the £33,000 prize and a place on a weeklong ‘Tech Mission’ to San Diego and San Francisco in December.
Now it’s your turn to bring your problem-solving ideas, concepts, or prototypes to the fore and take the first steps towards turning them into a business.
NISP CONNECT Programme Manager, Peter Edgar, said: “It’s very fitting that it was this very year, 2015, when the 1989 classic ‘Back to the Future’ predicted what our futuristic tech might be – things like fingerprint technology, hands-free video games, time travel , flying cars and hover boards.
“The challenge laid down to our ‘wantrepreneurs’, researchers, garden shed inventors or school kids across the province is create and invent products that can change the world around us for the better.”
Peter continued: “We had over 90 applications for INVENT 2014 so it’s testament to the fact that innovation is not only in our blood, but that we also have that real hunger and desire for invention.
“The quality of entrants last year was remarkable, from a university professor whose animation skills were used in the movie ‘Avatar’, to a 16-year-old schoolboy who’d created a mobile app for his friends with dyslexia.
“Then you have our other INVENT 2014 category winners whose innovations will mean introducing tech to the death industry, cleaner cities, smarter cycling, safer pesticides and more effective vaccinations: it’s that variety of incredible inventions that we are seeking in 2015.”
Ian Sheppard, Head of Business & Corporate Banking at Bank of Ireland UK: “At Bank of Ireland UK we care and passionately believe that Northern Ireland needs more entrepreneurs and business start ups.”
The competition, previously the 25K Awards, is, this year, celebrating its 15th anniversary. It comes as Northern Ireland was named as the second fastest growing knowledge economy in the U.K.
The winner of INVENT 2014 was announced as cemetery technology company ‘Plotbox’ in October. The husband and wife team from Portglenone, Sean and Leona McAllister, has already secured a number of key leads in America where the death industry is estimated at $20 billion annually.
Applications for INVENT 2015 close on Sunday 5 April 2015. To apply, visit:
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