Innovation has played a critical role in the success of Irish exporters over the years in what have often been David-and-Goliath battles with global competitors.
Horseware founder Tom MacGuinness started out stitching horse blankets at his kitchen table and ended up creating an entirely new class of waterproof, breathable rugs, Rambo, sales of which galloped around the world.
Tony Ryan, credited with starting an industry – aircraft leasing – also founded an upstart airline, which went on to be the biggest in Europe.
Entrepreneur Aimee Connolly started out on a make-up counter in Dublin’s Brown Thomas before going on to set up her own fast-growing brand, Sculpted by Aimee. Her range of hard working, multifunctional products is going gangbusters internationally, taking on the world’s biggest cosmetics brands in the process.
RM Block
Dundalk’s Suretank celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, representing three decades of engineering innovation. Founded by Patrick Joy in 1995 in a small workshop, it went on to be a world leader in the development of specialist equipment for the offshore oil and gas industry, expanding its manufacturing capabilities to Poland, the UK, Thailand and China.
Under managing director Martin Winters, it has continued to innovate and, in the past 10 years has successfully pivoted into new areas. Today it engineers solutions for multiple sectors including pharmaceuticals, renewables and data centres sectors, with customers in 23 countries.
Innovation has underpinned every step of its successful diversification programme. “One of the things I began looking at was how people were assembling wind turbines offshore. As a result of that we worked with two companies in Europe to develop a new cement mixing silo which is now used to cement the wind turbines offshore,” explains Winters.
For the fast-growing data-centre sector, Suretank adapted the frames it makes for the offshore industry, which traditionally would have contained stainless steel pressure vessels and pumps, and began installing electrical switchgear instead.
“Again, it is about working collaboratively with our clients, with every single site being different, with different planning issues, whether it is in Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or Paris,” says Martin.
The company, which already has two plants in Louth, is now opening a third and is currently recruiting 70 people.
“We reinvented ourselves. The business is in a very good place as a result of pivoting from working solely in offshore oil and gas to working across multiple sectors and numerous different industries. Innovation has been the key to it,” says Winters.
Innovation is also at the heart of Ireland’s sectoral successes, from world beating agri-machinery to fast growing fintech.
It is a key ingredient in the pharmaceutical sector too. “Innovation in pharma is essential, not just at the point of discovery but at every stage from development to manufacturing and commercialisation,” says Sinead Keogh, director of BioPharmaChem Ireland at Ibec.
Ireland has global strength in pharmaceutical manufacturing but to remain competitive, must lead in the science of next-generation medicine development, she explains.
“This means advancing research into scalable, sustainable manufacturing for emerging modalities, while also investing in the science of drug delivery, clinical translation, and the processes that turn breakthroughs into accessible treatments.”
In that respect she welcomes the most recent announcement of a €4.55 billion capital allocation to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science under the National Development Plan, which recognises the value of research.
The State’s indigenous biopharma ecosystem has already evolved significantly, transitioning from a support role for multinationals to a dynamic, innovation-driven sector in its own right.
“Local companies are now deeply engaged in research and development across high-value areas such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), biologics, advanced manufacturing, and next generation cell and gene therapies. This evolution has been underpinned by strong collaboration between industry and academia, supported by national research centres such as SSPC and NIBRT, which play a critical role in bridging science and commercial application,” says Keogh.
Facilities such as the Cherrywood Campus further support this growth, providing early-stage incubation with a particular focus on manufacturing and process innovation in cell and gene therapies.
Additionally, the Research Ireland ARC Hub for Therapeutics, led by UCD in partnership with Trinity College Dublin and RCSI, is accelerating breakthrough research in small-molecule and biological therapies, biomaterials, biomarkers, and advanced therapy medicinal products, with a clear focus on commercial impact.
“At BioPharmaChem Ireland, we’ve begun developing a strategy to strengthen and grow the indigenous biopharma ecosystem, with a formal launch planned for our annual BioPharmaChem Impact Conference next May. As part of this work, we’ve already mapped around 85 indigenous companies actively operating across the biopharmachem value chain,” says Keogh.
Looking more closely at the indigenous API sector, it is clear that companies are contributing at every stage of the life cycle, from discovery and preclinical work to early- and late-phase clinical development and post-approval manufacturing.
Examples include Almac Pharmaceuticals, TopChem Pharmaceuticals, ATXA Therapeutics, Iterum Therapeutics, APC, Inflection Biosciences, GH Research, Poolbeg Pharma, DS Biopharma, and Shorla Oncology. These Irish companies are advancing therapeutics in areas such as infectious diseases, oncology, neurology, cardiovascular disease and much more.
“Despite this strong foundation, there is still much more we can do to support Ireland’s indigenous biopharma sector,” says Keogh, who points out that access to early-stage funding remains complex, while simplifying grants and tax incentives would help remove key barriers to growth.
“We also need to raise the R&D Tax Credit outsourcing cap. Doing so would allow early-stage founders to collaborate more effectively with third-level institutions, helping to strengthen academic linkages and develop regional innovation clusters,” she adds.
