Crop scientist Professor Fiona Doohan and agricultural economist Professor Michael Wallace are among the winners of NovaUCD’s 2021 Innovation Awards announced on Monday.

There were a total of seven awards to highlight successes made in areas of knowledge transfer, consultancy and entrepreneurship by members of the UCD research and start-up community.

The main award, which recognises excellence in innovation or of successes achieved in the commercialisation of UCD research or other intellectual activity over a number of years, was awarded to Professor Doohan.

Crops

Professor Doohan’s research is focused on improving the sustainability of crop production systems in Ireland and globally.

She has secured over €30m in research funding to date.

Out of the 14 invention disclosures she has filed with NovaUCD, seven have been patented and three licence agreements have been signed with industry.

Professor Doohan is also a co-founder of e-Seed Crop Technology Solutions, a joint UCD-TCD spin-out company, which is focused on developing novel endophytes that can increase crop yields.

Tillage sector

Professor Michael Wallace was awarded the 2021 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award for a study entitled 'Economic Impact Assessment of the Tillage Sector in Ireland' commissioned by Tillage Industry Ireland.

The study revealed that the Irish tillage sector generates economic outputs of €1.3bn per year and supports 11,000 jobs.

It provides an evidence base to support future development planning for the tillage sector.