This week, the European Innovation Council selected N-Pro, an innovative sports technology brand from Galway, for a grant to conduct further research and development to address the challenge of reducing head injuries in sport.
The funds are made available under Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, and N-Pro is one of only 5 Irish businesses, selected from over 2,700 applicants across Europe, to receive funding.
The N-Pro headguard has been proven to provide significant impact protection. World Rugby is implementing a Global Law Trial for headgear over a five-year period. The trial has been devised to allow approved manufacturers to gather further scientific evidence during games and demonstrates World Rugby’s continued dedication to improving player welfare. To date, N-Pro is the only headguard approved to participate in the trial.
Utilising cutting edge defentex™ technology, N-Pro is designed to reduce the G-Force energy transferred to a player’s head during impact, one of the major factors in sports-induced brain injury. N-Pro manages this G-Force impact energy through its multi-layer construction.
The product has already undergone extensive research, including bench testing, simulated conditions-of-use tests, simulated aging tests, fatigue tests, biomechanical tests, three-dimensional finite element computational modelling, pre-clinical studies and clinical feasibility studies by independent experts and independent test laboratories.
N-Pro is the only rugby headguard that reduces impact to the head by up to 75%.
Founders of N-Pro, Mark Ganly and Dr Sandra Ganly, are delighted that N-Pro has been accepted to take part in the World Rugby trial and has also been selected to receive financial support from the European Innovation Council:
“Being selected to receive funding from the European Innovation Council endorses what we’ve achieved so far and, more importantly, will significantly boost our ability to generate further data that will allow us, World Rugby and all rugby players and their families to have confidence in N-Pro’s ability to make the game safer for everyone.” – Mark Ganly, N-Pro founder.
N-Pro is designed for players at any level and so far, is being worn by over 120 elite athletes playing in professional leagues, such as the new United Rugby Championship, The English Premiership, France’s Top 14 and as far afield as Australia, South Africa and the USA.
