Brian FOLEY

Brian Foley is Head of Industry Services at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). His role is to support industry and entrepreneurs in accessing the research, innovation and education capacities of the Institute. His role sees him engaging with national (indigenous) and international companies across a wide range of industrial sectors including ICT, Pharmaceutical and Engineering. He works closely with the Irish enterprise support agencies in attracting industry to the South-East Ireland region and supporting their engagement with the Institute. He is responsible for the strategic development of WIT’s enterprise incubation activities, which is especially targeted at start-up and early-stage companies. He also plays a role in developing and growing the Institute’s research and innovation capacities, as part of the Office for Research and Innovation at WIT.

Prior to taking up his current role in WIT, he was EU Quality Manager in the Institute’s largest research centre – the Telecommunication and Software Systems Group (TSSG). He was responsible for supporting researchers in accessing European funding and quality reviewing proposals. His research interest is in agtech and especially, the application of advanced ICT to agriculture and the agro-food industry. He has coordinated and managed a number of European-funded research projects across different programmes. Prior to joining WIT, he worked in a variety of roles in both the public and private sector in Ireland and overseas, including seven years in Brussels where he represented the interests of the Irish agricultural cooperatives to the European Commission.