Research examining the formation of Irish water; the use of imagery in annual reports and the determinants of SME growth in Ireland are among the inaugural projects to be funded by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland (CPA) Ireland Research Fund.  The CPA Ireland Research Fund was established by the CPA to support scholarly and creative research in the area of accountancy and finance. Researchers from Queens University Belfast, Dublin City University, the University of Limerick and Cork Institute of Technology will each receive funding of up to €2,500 to progress their research. “There are many challenges facing researchers in attracting funding in the area of finance and…

Ireland is set to become the first country in the European Union to introduce legislation on plain packaging for tobacco products. The Government has approved the publication of the Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2014 and the presentation of the Bill in the Seanad. “Ireland will be the first country in the European Union to introduce such legislation and the third country worldwide,” said  Minister for Health James Reilly. “Australia introduced plain packaging legislation in November 2011 and the New Zealand Bill had its first reading in Parliament on 11 February this year. I understand that other EU countries are also considering such legislation. “This represents a significant…

A team of secondary school students from Limerick City have won third place at a European Space Agency competition in Norway. The Crescent College Comprehensive team joined students from 14 countries across Europe in the competition to build a CanSat – a simulation of a real satellite integrated within the volume of a soft drinks can – which was then launched by rocket to a height of 1km. The test for teams was to include all the major subsystems found in a satellite, such as power, sensors and a communication system. At launch stage this week, the primary mission was to measure temperature and air pressure and transmit the data…

Outgoing CEO of Bord Iascaigh Mhara Jason Whooley is to head up Bio-marine Ingredients Ireland (BII) in Killybegs, Co Donegal from next September. BII is a €35m project which will result in the creation of up to 50 jobs during the construction phase and a further 70 direct and indirect jobs when it intends to go into full production in 2016. It was formed as a result of a joint venture between the Killybegs Fishermen’s Organisation and Norwegian pharmaceutical and marine biotech experts Biomarine Science Technology. “We intend BII to position Ireland as a global leader in marine ingredients,” said BII chairman Martin Howley. “With somebody of the vision and…

Six National College of Art and Design (NCAD) students have achieved recognition at the RSA Student Design Awards, which are run each year by the Royal Society for Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London. Previous winners include Sir Jonathan Ive, RDI, the senior vice-president of design at Apple; Richard Clarke, global vice-president of Design at Nike; and Paul Priestman, founder of global travel and transport design consultancy Priestmangoode. All six Irish student winners are studying product design at NCAD.  In the ‘Tomorrow’s Workplace’ category, sponsored by RBS, James Donnellan and Kevin Glynn won the overall award for ‘Best Design Project’ for ‘The Hatchery’, a methodology manifested through a…