‘SME Success story’ 3 rd Pan-European SME Event Vision 2020 Barcelona, 4 th April 2014

How we started 2007 Vision to create an R&D and advanced engineering company to ‘bridge innovation gap’ Own capital 150 K Loan €100K 20 m2 office in Barcelona Process enginee ring compan y

Our positioning Strategically positioned between Universities and Industry: specialising in scaling up technology & processes from lab to production line

How we grew R4SME R4SME projects 1 SME- AG R4SMEs 1 SME- AGs R4SMEs 1 SME- Ags 2 private contracts R4SMEs 1 SME-AGs 1 MANUNET 1 NMP 3 private contracts R4SME 1 SME-AG 2 DEMO 1 MANUNET 1 KBBE 5 private contracts SME projects 1 SME-AG 1 DEMO 1 MANUNET 1 KBBE 7 private contracts New product development ‘To-market orientation’ 2 staff 20m2 25 staff Investment in own laboratories & workshops 32 staff Commercial team International- isation (Ireland) 44 staff Operations & procedures 20 staff Investment electronics lab Agreement to access Uni labs 14 staff Move to ‘Mediterranean Technology Park’ 48 staff ISO & UNE Certification

A successful campaign in FP7 40 projects 2 KBBE 1 NMP 3 MANUNET 31 Research SMEs/Ags 3 DEMO Actions 34 led by IRIS Knowledge Continuous investment for Growth 48 staff 2 sites (BCN, Dublin) Engineering workshops Labs (optics, telecos, analytical, wet chemistry) Pilot facilities (Plasma, PEF, Ultrasound, Bioreactor, Coating line, HIS & NIR integrated into a conveyor line Innovation Hub (accelerator environment & sprint room) Revenue > €40 M in total > €14.5 M for IRIS €1.1 M from projects led by third parties Talent 25 %- PhD qualified Engineering team Optical Mechatronic Electronics Programmers Modellers Software Telecommunications Mechanical Scientific team Chemists Biologists Microbiologists Biochemists Physicists NetworksExperience Building test rigs Scaling up prototypes Integration & demonstration in industry Laboratory validation Industrialisation Project Management Knowledge Management Innovation Management

Examples of scaled up results in FP7

IRIS evolution

1.Hard work 2.Continuous improvement 3.Talent 4.Invest, invest, invest 5.Long-term vision Are there any keys to our success?

1.Ideas that make market sense 2.Make our ideas as ‘physical’ as possible 3.Strong and relevant partners (and win-win) 4.Branding 5.Impact, impact, impact What did we do well at proposal level?

1.Good project managers and procedures 2.Operations (from automotive sector) 3.Create a ‘project team’ 4.Understand who the client is 5.Risk management and quick action What did we do well at project level?

1.TRLs (make sure technology is ready to come out of lab) 2.Staff (right person right job) 3.Operational planning (no fire fighting!) Lessons we learned the hard way?

The future is bright

We see H2020 as a great opportunity helping to bridge the gap between research and the market helping innovative enterprise to develop their technological breakthroughs into viable products with real commercial potential promoting activities where businesses set the agenda prototypes, pilot implementations, demos, etc. A strategy for GROWTH and JOBs Innovation Union

V2020: Building our networks and forming part of a community A platform for meeting RTO and SME collaborators A community to share ideas, knowledge, advice and experience A source of partners and quality proposal concepts Visibility IRIS has recently joined as an SME member Building opportunities together

What’s on the Horizon for IRIS thanks to our success in FP7? Product launch in 2014 Branch facility in Hong Kong 3 patent applications 1 joint company (WHEYLAYER Ltd.) Joint development with global multinational for biomaterials development Exclusive integrator for 2 optical hardware companies B2B contracts with leading food & pharmaceutical companies