Shortlist announced for 2019 US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards

The US-Ireland Research Innovation Awards are a joint initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce and the Royal Irish Academy. Now in their fifth year, the awards recognise excellence in research innovation, creation and invention by an organisation, as a result of US Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ireland. The awards are kindly sponsored by KPMG and Ulster Bank with media support from The Irish Times.

The awards are presented in three categories:

• The Irish operations of US headquartered and controlled multinational company
•  An Irish Higher Education Institute or Research Centre with US corporate links
•  An Irish microenterprise or SME with US corporate links

Irish operations of a US multinational company shortlist

• FotoNation for DMS (Driver Monitoring System): the answer to saving lives and having safer roads all over the world.
• Microsoft Research Ireland for NLFast – a cutting-edge AI system that enables Microsoft to rapidly detect new issues in over 40million items of customer feedback per year.
• Shutterstock for Project Freya their next generation engine for managing rights and entitlements on millions of amazing celebrity, event, sports and news photographs

Irish Higher Education Institution/Research Centre with US corporate links shortlist:

• NUI Galway with Boston Scientific for GEMS a Global Energy Management System scientifically researched & developed by NUI Galway, Boston Scientific & Insight Centre. It has empowered Boston Scientific to become the 1st global Medical Device Company to commit to being Carbon Neutral by 2030.
• UCD and Lero SFI Research Centre with Microsoft for chatbots using AI technologies to help improve the lives of millions of young people who have been displaced in areas of conflict around the world. These chatbots can understand different languages and are used to assist refugees to access high quality education in their native language.
• UNESCO Chair at the Institute of Technology, Tralee with IHRSA, Boston for UFIT: a product that is inclusivizing the health and fitness sector globally

Irish Microenterprise or SME with US corporate links shortlist

• Allergy Standards with the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America for the asthma & allergy friendly® Certification Program
• Avectas with Mintz Levin for Solupore® a highly innovative and unique cell engineering technology comprising of a device and proprietary reagents, to engineer cells fit for immunotherapy.
• Vocavio for the integration of cloud-based speech dialog analysis software with simulated emergency training systems for pilots.

The winners in each of the categories of the awards will be announced at the American Chamber of Commerce annual dinner on Friday, 17 May in the Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road, Dublin.