Assistant Professor John McCallig. Recipient of the 2022 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award

Dublin, Ireland, 30 March 2022, NovaUCD has today announced the recipients of its annual innovation awards which highlight successes made in areas of knowledge transfer, consultancy, entrepreneurship and the promotion of an innovation culture, by members of the UCD research, innovation and start-up community.

A total of 8 Awards were presented by Professor Barbara Dooley, Acting UCD Registrar and Deputy President during an event held in the UCD University Club.

Professor Barbara Dooley, Acting UCD Registrar and Deputy President said, “The NovaUCD Innovation Awards which have become a key annual event at UCD, were established to recognise and highlight the successes being made by members of our research, innovation and entrepreneurial communities across the University. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all those who have received Awards today and I wish them ongoing successes in the years ahead as they continue to deliver impact for the economy and society through their commercialisation, consultancy, entrepreneurial and innovation activities.”

Dr John McCallig, Assistant Professor in Accountancy in the UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business and the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, was named recipient of the 2022 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award.

Dr McCallig has investigated how blockchain technology and advanced cryptography can be combined to design accounting systems that would enable transparent access to verifiable accounting information. Through his research, he had established that building such systems is theoretically possible and may lead to a complete redesign of financial reporting systems.
His invention is to use privacy preserving analytics to collect and share commercially sensitive information about VAT obligations and payments. This innovation can confirm that the proper VAT payments have been made, in real-time and without breaching the privacy of the individuals or firms. The potential impact of this invention is to provide a system that can interact natively with the digital economy and build a modern and fair tax system.

Dr John McCallig said, “I am delighted and deeply honoured to receive the 2022 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award. I appreciate the recognition being given to innovative ways of ensuring privacy and data integrity in critical social systems, like the VAT payment system. I am looking forward to seeing how this innovation can help develop a modern and fair tax system.”

The other Awardees are;

2022 NovaUCD Innovation Award, Professor Dominic Zerulla, UCD School of Physics. Since he joined UCD in 2014 Professor Zerulla has disclosed 11 inventions to NovaUCD, 5 of which have been patented, and founded PEARlabs, a UCD spin-out company.

2022 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award, BioSimulytics, a UCD spin-out focused on using artificial intelligence to digitise key steps in how new drug molecules are designed and developed. The company was founded in 2019 by Professor Niall English, Dr Christian Burnham, and Peter Doyle as a spin-out from the UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering.

2022 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award, Dr Sarah Cotterill, UCD School of Civil Engineering and UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research, for a consultancy study entitled ‘A Framework for Improving Domestic Water Conservation in Ireland’, commissioned by An Fóram Uisce (the Water Forum) through ConsultUCD.

2022 NovaUCD Founder of the Year Award, Sheena Bailey and Louella Morton, co-founders, TestReach.

2022 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award, Professor Ronan Cahill, Professor of Surgery at UCD School of Medicine and at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital where he is championing digital innovation and innovative solutions in surgery.

2022 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award, Professor Andrew Keane, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Director, UCD Energy Institute and co-founder and CTO of NovoGrid, a UCD spin-out and a pioneer in Grid Edge intelligence software that optimises energy delivery.

2022 NovaUCD Outstanding Achievement Award, Aidan Corbett, co-founder, Wayflyer, which earlier this year became Ireland’s sixth tech unicorn on securing a $150 million Series B funding round.

By Micéal Whelan, Communications and Media Relations Manager, NovaUCD, UCD Research and Innovation