RELAYs role is to assist the food industry and associated stakeholders exploit /
gain maximum benefit from the knowledge, technologies and innovations generated
from publicly funded research in Ireland. Its primary responsibility is to disseminate
the research outputs from the
Food Institutional Research Measure (FIRM)
funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food under the National Development
Plan (2007-2013). However, its aim is to be a one-stop-shop for food research information
on all publicly funded food research conducted in Ireland.
In total 18 research institutes, universities, institutes of technology and state
agencies are funded by FIRM. RELAY co-ordinates the project information from projects
at all of the institutions and sends targeted communications of the outputs to interested
food companies and associated stakeholders. Since 2000, RELAY has disseminated information
on about 230 food research projects covering all aspects of food research including
food safety, dairy, meat, consumer and functional foods as well as nutrition and
health and consumer studies.
www.relayresearch.ie
is the critical heart of the research database. It provides up to date information
on:
- research projects;
- researchers expertise and publications;
- institutes/universities facilities and expertise;
- a diary of upcoming RELAY workshops and other food related events;
- a library of popular reports and newsletters and
- presentations from past workshops.
One of the key objectives of RELAY is to support the commercial exploitation of
the research by working closely with the technology transfer offices at the institutes
and universities as well as Enterprise Ireland. Intellectual property (IP) in the
form of patents, know-how will be identified and protected where commercial opportunities
exist. Once the IP is protected RELAY will communicate the commercial opportunities
to potentially interested companies.