MTI Centre Director
Dr John Colreavy
Email: John.colreavy@teagasc.ie Telephone: +3531 805 9916
Dr. John Colreavy took up the role of MTI Centre Director on the 3rd of October 2016 and has led the centre through its first five-year Phase. Phase I culminated in a successful mid-term review which confirmed a net EVA (Economic Value Add) of €106m to the Irish economy or an ROI of 18.6X, the potential to create 288 new jobs, with 964 safeguarded. He has led the process leading to the Phase II programme with industry members, RPO stakeholders and Enterprise Ireland which has resulted in an increase of 36% of industry investment over Phase I. His experience spans almost three decades engaged in the commercialisation of research within the private sector (ICI Paints Research, British Steel Technical and Courtauld’s International), a decade as founding Director of DIT’s CREST Centre and a further decade with Enterprise Ireland as a Senior Research Officer and Senior Development Advisor. Between 2012 and 2016, as a Senior Development Advisor with Enterprise Ireland’s Food Division, he was responsible for significant commercial investments in the meat sector, resulting in company investments of €44.3m and the creation of an additional 635 jobs. He has MSc/PhD qualifications from the University of Surrey and UMIST (Manchester) in the UK. In 2003 he founded the CREST Centre, delivering 10% of all national licensing in 2011. Key professional milestones include drafting EU Directive (42/EU/2004) for the EU Commission, governing decorative coatings across the 28 member states in 2001 and representing the overall EU COST action at the first EU Innovation Convention in 2011 with the CREST Centre spinout, RADICAL. He has authored over 500 certified technical consultancy reports in the UK and Ireland. John has developed international research networks outside of Ireland, such as VTT (Finland), Fraunhofer (Germany), EADS, Tecnalia (Portugal) and the University of Cincinnati (US).
