Comments on: Innovation Vouchers: 802 issued, 110 redeemed so far

By: Antoin O Lachtnain

Antoin O Lachtnain — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:24:15 +0000

There is a question to be asked about the whole strategy, in my mind. The whole thing is based on the assumption that academic institutions and SME’s can work together on relatilvely small SME-driven projects. I just don’t know if that’s really all that practical as a model. It’s hard for a university to do a project for sub-20k, and it can lead to problems if the project isn’t very well aligned with the research objectives of the institution.

Still, that’s no criticism of the innovation vouchers scheme. It’s more the issue of whether and how institutions and small businesses can work together. I think there is a lot of subtlety to be worked out to get this to really work. That’s why the uptake is fairly low. It’s not because the scheme isn’t working, or because there isn’t interest. It’s just that it isn’t that easy to set this sort of thing up and running. Still, you have to start somewhere, and the innovation voucher is as good a place as any.

By: Keith Shirley

Keith Shirley — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:27:38 +0000

Keith Bohanna makes a very good point about working with the Institute before applying for the voucher. A simple chat will often make things much clearer.

I found IT Carlow to be very helpful in assisting me with the process and making clear to me which ideas were flights of fancy and which ones were realistic.

By: Bernie Goldbach

Bernie Goldbach — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:16:01 +0000

Tipperary Institute takes the innovation voucher theme into Limerick OpenCoffee as tabletop conversations and have done work that we would profile at Barcampcork if that’s helpful.

By: Fergus Burns

Fergus Burns — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:35:35 +0000

Great post Damien – i would echo Conor’s comments – but very interesting comments from Keith and Niall [the problem is really two fold - level of cash - and skills available]

When you consider that digg started for @2k and twitter was a sideline project – it does demonstrate that a small amount of cash can lead to bigger projects.

I hope EI and 3rd level institutions engage on this meme.

By: Damien

Damien — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:16:55 +0000

@MJ I only FOId for 2008. I’ll ask them for 2007 stats and whether they’ll go online.

I emailed the Nat College of Ireland with my idea, we had a 20 min call working out what I wanted and they made some suggestions and I then went off and applied for a voucher. Two weeks later I got an email to say I was approved so work with the NCI should start soon.

By: Niall Harbsion

Niall Harbsion — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:55:34 +0000

I think innovation vouchers are one of the better funding mechanisms that EI have but they are not being used correctly which is a great shame. Unlike many other EI grants there is no % to be paid by the company with 100% of the money available to pass on to the college of your choice. The only commitment that companies need to make is a couple of days research on the various colleges and finding a good “fit”. 2 days may seem like a lot of time to give up and although 5k may not seem like a lot to some companies you can often get much more out of the vouchers than the 5k.

We have just launched a voucher with the NCAD which means that we have 6 students of 4 people working on a complete overhaul of our site from a design perspective. They are final year students and for us to pay pro designers for this body of work would be impossible. Not only could we pay pro designers but we are also finding the work they are doing is better than anything we have seen before as they all have their finger very firmly on the pulse from an internet design perspective. Apart from the fact that we are getting a lot of “free” work done we also have access to some of the best designers in the country when we need to hire full time.

Luckily the NCAD had the foresight to see that this innovation voucher was a bonus from outside their normal funding and will be using it as a prize to reward the best project. Can you imagine the quality of work we are getting and how much the students are pushing themselves to learn as they fight over a cash prize?

For those who say it takes too long to complete paperwork etc the entire process has been…..

1.15 Minutes to complete the form

2.30 Minutes meeting the head of the college in person

3.3 minutes to take the voucher out of envelope and forward to college

4.As much time as you can afford to work with the students as the more time you commit the better result you will get

For those people who say you just got lucky and there is not that fir for everybody out there, other options I was considering for current voucher….

Creating an iPhone app using a voucher using tech colleges
Using Art and film school to create cool intros and media for our videos as well as viral marketing videos
Use food college to create a nutrition database for our site
etc etc

There are lots of possibilities and although the information is not freely available and it takes blog like this to highlight the vouchers the biggest barrier is people thinking creatively and putting some of their own time into the project and co-operating with the college. 5k is a lot of money and if used correctly will help your company grow immensely.

By: MJ

MJ — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:22:55 +0000

The stats only seem to be for 2008, did they give you the results of the original 2007 push?

In relation to case studies their eNewsletter often has them, but not specifically about Innovation Voucher users. Seems like a great idea to give the whole initiative a push – you should make the recommendation! It would be nice if you didn’t have to of course, but as you say – beurocracy!

By: keith bohanna

keith bohanna — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:28:42 +0000

thanks for the post Damien and for forced stats extraction. We were more successful with dbTwang. Currently in the middle of a project with Mike Kiely in Tipp Inst – however we agreed parameters of it with him first so we knew when we applied that we would start as soon as it was awarded. We did not look for EI guidance as our understanding was that this is a seeding engagement initiative and so the guidelines for what would be accepted were loose.

We may now consider applying for a second one once the first successfully concludes.

keith

By: Anton Mannering

Anton Mannering — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:50:52 +0000

My circumstances are very similar to Conors. We have one since the end of last September as well.
Biggest problem for us was the skills problem. Serious lack of the necessary skills amongst the vast majority of the providers as Conor points out.
Those with the skillset we needed weren’t interested in such a small project (5-10k). Not to mention some of the ridiculous IP issues.
Eventually we’ve just decided to forget about it as it was more hassle than it was worth.

So basically “Ditto” on what Conor said but he put it much better.

By: Evert Bopp

Evert Bopp — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:49:09 +0000

While the innovation vouchers are a great idea they seem to have gone the same way as most other EI innitiatives; ideas that die a slow death due to bureaucracy riddles implementation.
I have requested information on applying for Innovation Vouchers from several people in EI on a number of occasions and still have to receive a reply.
This gives me no hope in the actual use of the voucher. Saying that if they would issue me with a voucher I have some work ready to use it for…