Lia EyeCare, an eyecare technology start-up headquartered in Macroom, Co. Cork, has today been named recipient of the 2026 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award.
Lia EyeCare is focused on developing user-centred products to protect and help people’s eyesight. Lia’s vision is to lead the way in natural, science-backed solutions that work in harmony with the body.
The company co-founded by Breda O’Regan and Sinéad Buckley in 2023 is developing nightleaf™, a non-invasive wearable solution designed to address persistent dry and sore eyes by supporting the eye’s natural overnight recovery.
The start-up co-founders were presented with the Award by Professor Orla Feely, President, University College Dublin (UCD) during the annual presentation of the NovaUCD Innovation Awards which took place at the UCD University Club.
The concept for Lia EyeCare originated through the BioInnovate Ireland Programme at University of Galway. Further development continued at UCD with Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund support which enabled access to additional clinical product validation and commercial expertise before Lia EyeCare spun-out in 2023.
On receiving the 2026 NovaUCD Spin-out of the Year Award, Breda O’Regan, CEO, Lia EyeCare said, “This recognition is hugely significant for Lia EyeCare as a company. Ireland’s universities are known around the world for breakthrough innovations and their ability to support companies to translate world-class research into high-impact businesses, so it is a real honour to be chosen as NovaUCD’s Spin-out of the Year. This Award is a really strong endorsement of our team and also the global commercial and market opportunity ahead for nightleaf™.”
Dry, sore, and irritated eyes are an increasingly common issue affecting 1.6 billion people worldwide. Often associated with Dry Eye Disease (DED) these symptoms are driven by a range of modern lifestyle factors, including increased screen use, ageing populations, environmental conditions, and contact lens wear.
Most existing approaches, including the use of eye drops, focus on managing symptoms rather than addressing the underlying lack of natural tears. Eye drops, in particular, require frequent reapplication and ongoing purchase, and concerns have been raised about contamination and patient compliance with repeated use.
Unlike traditional approaches that rely on eye drops or heated masks worn over closed eyes, nightleaf™ is designed as a lightweight wearable that sits comfortably on the forehead and which is worn for five minutes at the start and end of people’s nighttime rest period.
Using innovative technology to apply cooling modulation, nightleaf™ encourages the eye’s natural tear response, helping to support the eye’s recovery process. By working with the body’s natural mechanisms rather than relying on repeated applications of drops, nightleaf™ aims to provide a practical new option for people experiencing persistent dry or sore eyes.
Since the company spun-out it has established its headquarters in Co. Cork along with offices at NovaUCD, secured Enterprise Ireland High-Potential Start-Up (HPSU) status and was an Award winner at the prestigious M2D2 Challenge start-up competition hosted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Boston.
The company is currently partnering with TU Dublin’s Centre for Eye Research Ireland to investigate the epidemiology of Dry Eye Disease in Ireland and is advancing AI applications in this field through international collaborations.
Sinéad Buckley, COO, Lia EyeCare, added, “This Award reflects the years of research, engineering, and development that have gone into creating nightleaf™ and our vision of being able to provide immediate relief for people with dry, sore eyes. Bringing a product to market isn’t easy, and we’ve had vital support from our colleagues at UCD and University of Galway, and many others along the way. We’d like to thank them all for driving us on and enabling us to deliver a product that’s going to provide real and meaningful benefits to people around the world.”
nightleaf™ is currently undergoing design work for large scale manufacturing for commercial launch in Q4 2026 and Lia EyeCare is currently inviting eyecare patients and clinicians to join a waitlist for early access.
The annual NovaUCD Innovation Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in knowledge transfer, consultancy, entrepreneurship and the promotion of an innovation culture within UCD’s research and start-up communities.
Dr Eoin O’Cearbhaill, Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, who over the last number of years has built an internationally recognised research group addressing critical clinical needs by developing innovative medical devices that have real-world applications, has been named the recipient of the 2026 NovaUCD Innovation Award, the main Award presented at the event.
Professor Orla Feely, President, UCD said, “At University College Dublin we are dedicated to driving research and innovation activities by leveraging our expertise and partnerships to develop talent and to achieve meaningful impact. The NovaUCD Innovation Awards, a key annual event in the University’s calendar, celebrate and recognise the remarkable work of our research and entrepreneurial communities in creating and applying their knowledge to deliver impact. I offer my warmest congratulations to this year’s Awardees and look forward to their continued success as they advance Irish research and innovation on a global stage.”
A total of seven (7) Awards were presented by Professor Feely and the other five (5) Awardees are;
2026 NovaUCD Invention of the Year Award: Professor Kenneth Dawson, UCD School of Chemistry and Founder of the UCD Centre for BioNano Interactions, and Associate Professor Yan Yan, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, for their invention which introduces a disruptive shift in nanomedicine through the creation of a leading-edge “biological-hybrid” platform. This breakthrough invention establishes a transformative, programmable toolkit for the next generation of precision therapeutics.
2026 NovaUCD Licence of the Year Award: Professor Theo De Waal, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine; Dr Dimitri Scholz, UCD Conway Institute; Assoc. Professor Vladimir Lobaskin, UCD School of Physics and Emeritus Assoc. Professor William O’Connor, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, for the development of a novel faecal egg count device which was licenced to CF Pharma and is now being sold globally by Telenostic, a CF Pharma spin-out, to identify parasitic infection in animals on farms.
2026 NovaUCD Consultancy of the Year Award: Professor Regina Uí Chollatáin, Principal and Dean, UCD College of Arts and Humanities and UCD Chair of Modern Irish and Literature. With the support of ConsultUCD Professor Uí Chollatáin won a tender from Coimisiún na Meán for a comprehensive 12-month study to review and assess the current Irish language media landscape and to make recommendations regarding its development.
2026 NovaUCD CEO of the Year Award: Jason Lynch, CEO, Equal1. Equal1, a UCD spin-out which earlier this year closed a $60 million funding round, is on a mission to democratize quantum computing and to make this transformative technology, which offers unprecedented potential to unlock societal advancements in areas such as climate modelling and drug discovery, accessible and affordable for all.
2026 NovaUCD Innovation Champion of the Year Award: The European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) programme team at CeADAR, Ireland’s Centre for Applied AI and the EDIH Hub for AI in Ireland. The team at is focused on championing innovation and industry engagement for SMEs and Public Service Organisations (PSOs) and helps SMEs and PSOs to leverage the latest AI and digital advances.
NovaUCD is supported under the KT Boost Programme co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union, through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027.