An Irish business development body has announced it is to invest up to €175,000 in five North/South company-to-company research and development (R&D) partnerships.

InterTradeIreland has encouraged companies from across the island of Ireland to take advantage of its Innova programme - by Friday 4th June.

The call was made to "companies with innovative ideas, which have strong commercial potential and an R&D partner in place".

Innova is the only cross-border R&D programme that supports companies across Ireland to accelerate new product, process or service developments through partnering with a company in the other jurisdiction. As well as the financial support available, companies benefit from pooling their expertise and resources with another company anywhere on the island to bring their innovations to market faster than if they were working alone.

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Through the programme, InterTradeIreland has already invested over €5m to support collaborative R&D projects across the island.

InterTradeIreland’s Director of Programmes and Business Services, Margaret Hearty, said: "Developing and exploiting new ideas is critical to business success, particularly in the current climate. Companies need to innovate to survive and grow but many lack the resources to make it happen.

"InterTradeIreland's Innova programme offers an attractive support package for those companies serious about R&D and the unique opportunity to tap into the wealth of expertise that exists across the island."

(NS/GK)