industry outreach

The Applied Optics Group in collaboration with IMDA (Irish Medical Device Association) will soon host the "Optics as an Enabling Technology for the Medical Device Sector" conference. This offering to Ireland’s FDI and indigenous medical technology companies will take place here in Galway on Feburary 24th 2010. IMDA anticipates that 50-70 participants from industry will attend, the majority of whom are expected to be engineering/technology managers, R&D managers, senior manufacturing/process engineers, QA engineers etc. The conference program and speaker profiles are available for download.

 lightFORUM 

lightForum is an industry-academic network, providing a framework in which scientists and professionals in industry and the University can explore and develop interactions of mutual interest. The forum organises regular networking events, meetings and seminars on topics of interest to industry,  
Further details are available on http://www.nuigalway.ie/lighthouse

Roundtable Events

The Applied Optics Group arranges a series of roundtable discussion meetings for industry. These informal meetings focus on the interchange of ideas and knowledge, in topics of relevance to industry.  
Further information on these roundtable events is available on http://optics.nuigalway.ie/courses

Short Courses for Industry

A range of short courses are provided to industry by the Applied Optics Group. The research team believes that offering these courses is one of the most valuable interactions we can have with industry. The current portfolio includes;

       *       Practical Optics - An Introduction to Optics and Optical Systems,
       *       An Introduction to Optical Design

A range of Applied Optics industry courses are being  provided in 2008 &  2009, for the BESTNet Industry Training Network.  Member companies of this network will receive part-funding of these courses by Skillnets.  The BESTNet training schedule is available on www.bestnet.ie

Further information on these courses is available on http://optics.nuigalway.ie/courses or, by contacting Emer McHugh: 
Email:   emer.mchugh@nuigalway.ie 
Phone: +353 (0)91 4951

Consulting and Special Contracts

The Applied Optics Group provides a range of consulting services to industry.  Commercially sensitive research is handled through either a Consulting Agreement (for small scale activities) or a Special Research Contract for larger projects.  
If your company has such a requirement, please contact Professor Chris Dainty:        Email : c.dainty@nuigalway.ie 
Phone: +353 (0)91 492 826 
                       

R&D Collaborative Partnerships

Industry partners are invited to contact the Applied Optics Group to explore opportunities to collaborate on research and development projects. The group has extensive experience in collaborative R&D projects supported by national and EU funding organisations.

PhD Student Sponsorship

Individual Company Initiatives 
An important priority in the group is the training of PhD students and other young scientists. Industry is particularly encouraged to consider supporting a PhD project by providing a stipend and minor support costs (typically a total of (€80K over three years).

The group can also accommodate employees of industrial partners conducting research towards a postgraduate qualification. If you wish to suggest a project area for support, please contact Professor Chris Dainty, details above. The most suitable projects are ones in which the company has a strong interest but are not overly commercially sensitive. We would expect to enter into a non-disclosure agreement, with the sponsoring company, where appropriate,  and are fully aware of the need to maintain confidentiality and protect intellectual property as necessary.

 IRCSET Enterprise Partnership Scheme

The Applied Optics Group is a participant of the Enterprise Partnership Scheme provided by the Irish Research Council for Science Engineering & Technology (IRCSET). The Enterprise Partnership Scheme is a co-operative scheme with industry to fund early stage career development among the most promising young researchers in Ireland. The scheme provides industry with flexible and easy access to an exceptional pool of competitively pre-selected, high calibre researchers. It then jointly funds these researchers together with the individual companies who pay a proportion of the funding involved.

Further details of the scheme are available from Una Murphy: 
Email : una.murphy@nuigalway.ie 
Phone : +353 (0)91 495351 
Mob :   087 6637352

Equipment Donations and Extended Loans

To augment it’s laboratory facilities the group has a program to facilitate the donation of specialist equipment by companies, and to provide such equipment on extended loan. If your company is interested in the Equipment Donation and Extended Loan program, please contact Professor Chris Dainty.  
Email : c.dainty@nuigalway.ie 
Phone: +353 (0)91 492 826

For further information on the Applied Optics Group Industry Outreach Programme please contact  Una Murphy:

Email : una.murphy@nuigalway.ie 
Phone : +353 (0)91 495 351 
Mobile :  087   6637352