CTVR, THE telecommunications research centre based at Trinity College Dublin, has completed a review of its initial four-year term and is close to securing €20 million in Science Foundation Ireland funding to enable it to continue until 2012.

One start-up company, Socowave, has been formed based on CTVR research with at least one more expected to be spun out this year. Ten projects have received proof-of-concept funding from Enterprise Ireland while six larger technology development projects are being funded for a three-year period.

Another project, which has built a high performance antenna for laptops that can support multiple wireless standards such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 3G, is being fast-tracked under Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Plus programme so that opportunities with laptop manufacturers can be pursued.

“We would expect to at least double those targets in our second phase,” says Prof Donal O’Mahony, director of CTVR.

Established in 2004 as part of a government initiative to work with the Bell Labs research centre in Blanchardstown, CTVR has subsequently built relationships with other industry players such as Xilinx, Dell, IBM, NEC, NXP and Molex.

Prof O’Mahony says that while many of these firms already have bases in Ireland, those who don’t may be attracted here by the quality of the work their researchers do with CTVR.

The centre also works with IDA Ireland in its efforts to market the country as a location for research and development.

“The CTVR wants to commercialise its research so our people need to be aware how the technology fits with the market,” says Prof O’Mahony. A new scheme, the Telecoms Graduate Initiative, will see researchers take modules in different business skills as well as getting work placement with industry.

Socowave, which has licensed a CTVR-developed patent, was founded by Joe Moore, a seasoned telecoms industry executive who was put in touch with the centre by Enterprise Ireland.

Prof O’Mahony believes this could be a useful model for commercialising research as not all researchers have the desire or skills to create their own start-up.

About 100 people work at CTVR – 20 in the faculty at its TCD base and 80 researchers based at third-level institutes around the country. The main areas of research include optical networking, radio antennae and wireless networking.