Monday 20 April 2026

Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill, an associate professor in biomedical engineering at the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, who over the last number of years has built an internationally recognised research group focusing on medical device design and innovation, has been named the recipient of the 2026 NovaUCD Innovation Award.

Excellence in innovation

This award recognises excellence in innovation or of successes achieved in the commercialisation of UCD research, or other intellectual activity, by the awardee over a number of years.

Dr O'Cearbhaill was presented with his award by Professor Orla Feely, president, University College Dublin (UCD), and former president of Engineers Ireland, during the annual presentation of the NovaUCD Innovation Awards which took place at the UCD University Club.

Dr O'Cearbhaill, said: “I am delighted to accept this Award on behalf of our team of wonderful researchers, past and present, whose passion for medical device innovation, have enabled us to translate technologies towards clinical use and improving the lives of patients. I’m very grateful to NovaUCD and funding from Enterprise Ireland and Research Ireland, for providing the support that enables this to happen.”

Dr O’Cearbhaill is also the director of the UCD Centre for Biomedical Engineering and leads the UCD Medical Device Design Group within the Centre. The group’s research addresses critical clinical needs by developing innovative medical devices that have real-world applications and has facilitated the creation of three UCD spin-out companies, LaNua Medical, Latch Medical and Lia EyeCare, multiple high-impact publications, and secured over €8 million in competitive research funding.

With 14 patents filed, six of which have been licensed to five medtech companies to date, Dr O’Cearbhaill has successfully bridged the gap between academic research and clinical translation. In addition he has been a member of multiple Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund projects, five as PI, three as collaborator and one as a R&D engineer and is a PI on two Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund projects.

Through his research group he has supported multiple research teams, over many years, to complete UCD commercialisation programmes run by NovaUCD, including the UCD VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme.

In the last 18 months LaNua Medical, a medtech company developing solutions for problems in embolization, has closed a €6 million seed funding round which was co-led by Elkstone and Atlantic Bridge, with participation from Enterprise Ireland and Furthr VC, and secured €6 million in funding to lead a Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund project.

Dr O’Cearbhaill has also been involved in multiple industry engagement and consultancy projects with a number of MNCs, SMEs and startups including, Hollister Inc., Boston Scientific, NeoGraft Technologies Inc., Johnson and Johnson Services Inc. and CroíValve.

He is also a funded investigator with the Research Ireland Centres, Cúram and I-Form.

The annual NovaUCD Innovation Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in knowledge transfer, consultancy, entrepreneurship and the promotion of an innovation culture within UCD’s research and start-up communities.

Prof Feely said: “At University College Dublin we are dedicated to driving research and innovation activities by leveraging our expertise and partnerships to develop talent and to achieve meaningful impact.

"The NovaUCD Innovation Awards, a key annual event in the University’s calendar, celebrate and recognise the remarkable work of our research and entrepreneurial communities in creating and applying their knowledge to deliver impact. I offer my warmest congratulations to this year’s Awardees and look forward to their continued success as they advance Irish research and innovation on a global stage.”

A total of seven awards were presented by Prof Feely and the other six awardees are:

1. 2026 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award: Professor Kenneth Dawson, UCD School of Chemistry and Founder of the UCD Centre for BioNano Interactions, and Associate Professor Yan Yan, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, for their invention which introduces a disruptive shift in nanomedicine through the creation of a leading-edge "biological-hybrid" platform. This breakthrough invention establishes a transformative, programmable toolkit for the next generation of precision therapeutics.
2. 2026 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award: Professor Theo De Waal, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine; Dr Dimitri Scholz, UCD Conway Institute; Assoc. Professor Vladimir Lobaskin, UCD School of Physics and Emeritus Assoc. Professor William O’Connor, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, for the development of a novel faecal egg count device which was licenced to CF Pharma and is now being sold globally by Telenostic, a CF Pharma spin-out, to identify parasitic infection in animals on farms.
3. 2026 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award: Lia EyeCare, an eyecare technology start-up, co-founded by Breda O’Regan and Sinéad Buckley, is developing nightleaf™ a non-invasive wearable solution designed to address persistent dry and sore eyes by supporting the eye’s natural overnight recovery. nightleaf™ is currently undergoing design work for large scale manufacturing for commercial launch in Q4 2026.
4. 2026 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award: Professor Regina Uí Chollatáin, Principal and Dean, UCD College of Arts and Humanities and UCD Chair of Modern Irish and Literature. With the support of ConsultUCD Professor Uí Chollatáin won a tender from Coimisiún na Meán for a comprehensive 12-month study to review and assess the current Irish language media landscape and to make recommendations regarding its development.
5. 2026 NovaUCD CEO of the Year Award: Jason Lynch, CEO, Equal1. Equal1, a UCD spin-out which earlier this year closed a $60 million funding round, is on a mission to democratize quantum computing and to make this transformative technology, which offers unprecedented potential to unlock societal advancements in areas such as climate modelling and drug discovery, accessible and affordable for all.
6. 2026 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award: The European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) programme team at CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for Applied AI and the EDIH Hub for AI in Ireland. The team at is focused on championing innovation and industry engagement for SMEs and Public Service Organisations (PSOs) and helps SMEs and PSOs to leverage the latest AI and digital advances.

NovaUCD is supported under the KT Boost Programme co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union, through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027.