27th January 2017
Taoglas to lead cutting edge European Research Project worth €633,000 awarded under ESA Satellite Communications Programme (ARTES)
Mr John Halligan T.D., Minister of State for Training, Skills & Innovation announced details of a significant project win by Taoglas during a visit to the company at its headquarters in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford today 27th January 2017.
Taoglas secured the funding totalling €633,000 from the European Space Agency (ESA) with the support of Enterprise Ireland, the co-ordinating body for ESA in Ireland.
The funding has contributed towards a complex research, development and commercialisation of their ZRM project, which combines the antenna elements, data router and Wi-Fi transceiver into a technology platform to provide an “Always Online” solution for fixed and mobile applications.
Congratulating the company on its success, Minister Halligan stated, “I am delighted to see a company in the South East winning such a high value contract from the European Space Agency. It points to the excellence in product development achieved by Taoglas, and is a superb example of how a growing number of Irish companies are benefitting from Irish Government investment in ESA”.
According to Tony McDonald, Enterprise Ireland’s ESA Programme Manager “Taoglas represents one of a growing number of Irish companies benefiting from ESA support, in the expanding IoT market. We expect to see further participation by Enterprise Ireland client companies in this specific sub sector in 2017”.
Taoglas is a 100% Irish owned Group founded by two Irish entrepreneurs, Ronan Quinlan and Dermot O’Shea, Joint Managing Directors. Taoglas is an innovative technology Group delivering antenna products and radio frequency (RF) solutions to global brands. Taoglas is a leader in IoT antenna technology with subsidiaries and world class design, engineering and testing facilities in Wexford, Ireland; San Diego, US; Munich, Germany; and Taoyuan County, Taiwan. They are fully committed to a long relationship with both Enterprise Ireland and ESA to enable Taoglas to expand their antenna and RF research and development centre of excellence in Ireland.
Joint Managing Director Ronan Quinlan commented:
“As a customer-focused Group, Taoglas specialise in understanding and responding to the real needs of customers. We provide an entire antenna design and supply chain solution for wireless products to reduce our end customer’s product development time and component costs. Current solutions for complete connectivity utilise separate routers, antennas and multiple cables. They are complex and costly to install and may not be 100% reliable due to the cable insertion losses. We identified and addressed a need from our customers for a technology platform that is versatile and scalable with the back-haul capabilities to provide sufficient bandwidth for mobile applications, such as, rail, buses and marine.”
With the securing of this funding from ESA, Taoglas have been able to employ six highly skilled engineers to develop the technology platform, capable of covering Cellular LTE MIMO, GNSS, dual band Wi-Fi MIMO and Iridium communications in a compact form factor at a highly competitive price. They believe the technology platform to be a disruptive technology in the IoT marketplace and have received significant interest from major multinational router companies to fully commercialise the design.
Taoglas are currently working on the next evolution of the platform and the Enterprise Ireland-backed company plans to recruit more engineers over the next twelve months to expand its workforce at its Wexford facility, bringing further employment to its headquarters and benefiting the local community.
ENDS
Issued by: Press Office of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation
Contact: Press Office, D/Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation ph. 6312200 or press.office@djei.ie
For more information, please contact:
Taoglas Melanie Golden
Operations Manageremail: mgolden@taoglas.com Tel. +353 53 9169500
Neil WoodhouseAntenna Engineeremail: nwoodhouse@taoglas.com Tel. +353 53 9169500
Editor Notes:
About Taoglas:
Headquartered in Ireland and with over 13 years’ experience, Taoglas provides advanced antenna products and RF service solutions to the world’s leading IoT brands. Shipping millions of antennas annually, with over 200 employees spread across our operations in Ireland, Germany, Taiwan and USA, our design and support centres are located close to you, wherever you are. These centres have the most up to date test and design equipment including state of the art Anechoic Chambers, 4G LTE call boxes, environmental and reliability testing capabilities and RF Simulation software. Our diverse, multi-skilled, vibrant, hardworking team of RF professionals deliver the right solution to solve your antenna and RF challenges. We have a wealth of experience across different use cases from LTE to GNSS, DSRC, and NFC and satellite communications. This is proven in the huge variety of IoT applications that use our expertise including Telematics, Automotive, Metering, Wearables, Medical Devices, Remote Monitoring, and High Speed Video Broadcasting.
The European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities. Today it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. www.esa.int
ESA plays a critical role in developing a strong European Space programme and space industry and has been fundamental to in developing the specialised, highly innovative, industrial capabilities that exist in the Irish space sector. ESA :-
- Provides a significant capital investment support for in-company & 3rd level RDI in leading edge space technologies for commercial exploitation in the global space and non-space markets for the SME and MNC sector.
- Supports the Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland strategy of supporting high potential start-ups, company scaling, as well as foreign direct investment.
- Provides prioritised support for technology innovation and technology transfer that leads to exports, sales and employment generation by Irish industry.
- A platform to fully exploit the opportunities of the Global space market and maximise the financial return and economic impacts of Ireland’s significant financial contributions to the EU space programme budgets.
More details on Enterprise Ireland, managing Ireland’s investment in the European Space Agency
Enterprise Ireland co-ordinates Ireland’s industrial and research participation in the programmes of the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.
The purpose of Ireland’s membership of ESA is to participate in European space programmes with a focus on facilitating innovative Irish companies to develop leading edge space technologies and to commercially exploit their ESA participation in global space and non-space markets, leading to increased export sales and employment.
Enterprise Ireland’s role in relation to ESA is to assist Irish companies to successfully bid for ESA contracts, providing expertise for Irish companies and researchers in developing and executing space strategies, as well as being a point of reference for the international space industry when they want to identify relevant sources of space-related expertise within Ireland.
Irish industrial and research participation in ESA covers a range of sectors and technology areas including; software, precision mechanical engineering, telecommunications, electronics, optoelectronics and advanced materials and extending to end user equipment, services and applications.
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