InterTradeIreland not only offers SMEs business funding to help develop new innovative ideas or to target new cross-border markets, we also provide a wealth of information and advice in areas such as public tendering, sourcing alertnative sources of funding for your business and how to access lucrative R&D funds available through Horizon 2020.

On the website SMEs can now find the information and support they need more easily:


Funding

• Sourcing specialist consultancy advice
• Finding the right person with the right skills for your business
• Partnering with academic institutes 
• Help To Raise Finance

InterTradeIreland will support you financially in these areas, assisting not only with funding, but also with specialist expertise and vital introductions.

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Intelligence

• Valuable cross-border market intelligence on opportunities, regulation, market trends and important influencers.
• Specialist Knowledge -Access to a strong knowledge base through Graduates, Universities, company collaboration and specialist consultants.
• Business Intelligence - Comprehensive all-island business intelligence, reports and statistics.

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• Networking Opportunities -We run a series of business events including conferences, seminars, workshops and masterclasses on various topics and themes, most of which are free to attend which give you the valuable opportunity to make those all-important connections.

The free regional workshops and clinics are designed specifically for established SMEs seeking finance. The workshops will provide these companies with an overview of the sources of finance available to them and also the necessary guidance and advice needed to equip SMEs to plan and prepare better.

The events take place between 830am and 10am.

Dates and Locations  

Registration

Book your free place now! Register here.

• Agri Food Category: BFree Foods (Dublin), Dr Coy’s Health Foods Ltd (Wicklow) and Ocean Harvest Technology  (Galway)
• Bioscience Category: Embo Medical (Galway), Fusion Antibodies Ltd (Antrim) and Lloyds Online Doctor (Dublin)
• Creative Industries Category: ARCKIT (Dublin), The Creativity Hub (Antrim) and WholeWorldBand (Dublin)
• Energy & The Environment Category: AmbiSense Ltd (Dublin), REDT Energy (Dublin) and Surface Power HONE (Dublin)
• IT & Communications Category: Core Systems (Antrim), Nautilus NI Ltd (Down), Sedicii (Waterford)
• Manufacturing: Category:   AmaTech Group Ltd (Galway), Andor Technology (Antrim), Panelduct (Mayo)  

The Prizes

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday 17th April 2015 in Belfast.  Each category winner will secure a €10,000 media package with The Irish Times and an iPad. They will then compete to win the overall title of ‘Innovation of the Year’, which awards the winner with a communications and advertising package from The Irish Times, worth €150,000. In addition, a UCD scholarship for an Executive Education programme commencing in 2016 and a state of the art laptop .

Judges

More than x detailed entries were reviewed by an initial panel of judges from the world of academia, media and business. The 18 shortlisted entries will present their innovations before a distinguished final panel of judges in Dublin in February. The final judging panel includes:

• Dr. Christopher J Horn, co-founder of Iona Technologies
• Aidan Gough, Strategy & Policy Director, InterTradeIreland
• Norman Crowley,   CEO & Founder, Crowley Carbon Ltd
• Mark Nodder, Group Managing Director, the Wright Group.
• Helen Kirkpatrick MBE
• Kevin Neary, co-founder of the GameStop Group
• David Woolfson, CEO of Gabriel Scientific

For more information

For more information, visit www.irishtimes.com/business/innovation/innovation-awards-2015.  InterTradeIreland is a joint partner of the 2015 awards.  Associate Sponsors include: Teagasc, Science Foundation Ireland and UCD Michael Smurfit Business Graduate School.

Three key conclusions emerging from the report:

(1) firms are leaving the financial effects of the recession behind but structural issues remain in access to finance;
(2) smaller and younger and smaller firms continue to have greater difficulties in accessing finance; and
(3) an informational opacity exists in the market, something with the InterTradeIreland ‘Funding for Growth’ advisory service seeks to address.

Download a copy

To find out more information about the report findings and recommendations you can download a copy of the report here.