Athlone Institute of Technology has been awarded €1.137 million in Enterprise Ireland funding to purchase highly specialist equipment for its two technology gateways, Applied Polymer Technology (APT) and Connected Media Application Design and Delivery (COMAND).
APT, which provides polymer technology solutions for companies in the medical, composite, recycling, and pharmaceutical sectors, and is housed within the Institute’s Materials Research Institute, has been awarded the bulk of the funding, over €970,000, for seven pieces of highly specialised equipment, including a 3D scanner, micro moulder, and a freeformer machine, which is the first of its kind in the Republic of Ireland.
The equipment approved for funding is intended for extremely advanced applications, and will enable Athlone Institute of Technology to better serve the needs of Ireland’s €2 billion plastics industry, particularly in regard to upskilling, research and development techniques, and providing world-class consultancy to companies and helping them to execute their technical road maps.
Dr Noel Gately, APT Technology Gateway Manager, said: “Receiving this funding is a huge endorsement of the work that we’re doing and will enable us to support companies interested in trying out new technologies and technologies, all of which will enable their own innovation agendas.”
“Our fully trained staff have decades of experience in R&D for the polymer industry and are there to help companies promote their research agendas.”
“On top of that, this positions Athlone Institute of Technology to help upskill companies whether that be through short term training courses, master’s degrees, or PhD level where they feel there is a need or a gap in their knowledge.”
Meanwhile, COMAND will receive over €160,000 in capital funding to facilitate the purchase of a distributed machine learning and analytics tool.
Anthony Cunningham, COMAND Technology Gateway Manager, said: “This specialist equipment will enable our industry partners to develop and verify artificial intelligence and data analytics solutions across the edge and cloud.”