Steve Orr, Matrix panel member and Chief Executive of Catalyst, the Northern Ireland innovation hub, has been awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to innovation. Prior to succeeding Dr Norman Apsley as Chief Executive of Catalyst in 2018, Steve founded Connect at Catalyst, a not-for-profit [...]
UK and NI Executive Ministers gathered at the ICC Belfast this morning to sign the first ever City Deal for Northern Ireland. The Belfast Region City Deal unlocks £1 billion of transformative co-investment which will deliver more than 20 highly ambitious projects and programmes, create up to 20,000 new and [...]
Former Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast Professor Sir Peter Gregson has been appointed Chair of the Henry Royce Institute, the UK’s national institute for advanced materials research and innovation. Speaking about his appointment, Sir Peter said: “The Henry Royce Institute is a national asset for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation [...]
The Connected Places Catapult (CPC) has announced the names of the five companies that will work on the housing technology testbed projects in Northern Ireland. It has revealed details of plans for the Homes for Healthy Ageing programme, which involves a consortium of agencies in Northern Ireland running trials of digital [...]
As the region works towards the Derry & Strabane City Deal which will see Derry - Londonderry becoming a Hub for AI and Data Analytics, academic and industry researchers gathered (virtually and in person) at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) at Ulster University’s Magee campus this Autumn for the first ever ‘ISRC-CN3 Autumn School’. [...]
Finance Minister Conor Murphy has encouraged individuals and businesses to apply for grants of up to £5,000 as he launched the Open Data Innovation and Outreach Fund. Whether it’s building an app or interactive data visualisation, organising a hackathon or coming up with a new way to examine the impact [...]
Have you been part of a team that’s made an incredible innovative leap with commercial viability that has provided a real benefit to society? Open to UK Based organisations and institutions the annual MacRobert Award, presented by the Worshipful Company of Engineers in conjunction with the Royal Academy of Engineering [...]
Our Deputy Chair, Mary McKenna, has joined DIT’s Global Entrepreneur Team as their first ever dealmaker dedicated to bringing founding teams & their innovative, tech-based businesses to Northern Ireland. Her new role will use her entrepreneurial experience, global network & detailed understanding of the Northern Irish investment & early stage [...]
Do you run a small, innovative business interested in making it as a public sector supplier? SBRI could provide the pathway for you to make a real difference to citizens and work with the public sector in Northern Ireland. Matrix has just launched a new feature on its website dedicated [...]
Matrix has been accepted as an Associate Member of the Foundation for Science and Technology, a UK charity providing an impartial platform for debate of policy issues that have a science, research, technology or innovation element. Established in 1977, the Foundation brings together brings together Parliamentarians, civil servants, industrialists, researchers, [...]
Matrix, the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel is to partner AICon 2021, the ground-breaking artificial intelligence conference which is returning to Belfast for a hybrid event on Friday 3 December. Taking place at Titanic Belfast, the conference has been curated by Matrix Panel member and Kainos’ Director of Innovation Tom [...]
Dr Robert Grundy, the Chair of the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel - Matrix, recently attended Open Technology for Sustainability, a fringe event at COP26 - The UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. In this article, Dr Grundy shares his impressions of the challenges now facing us as we seek [...]