Innovations producing software to assist astronauts at the European Space Agency, devices that advance medical science and a system that could allow a person to put out an RT╔ television news bulletin are among the submissions that have made it to the final of this year's National Innovation Awards.

Skytek, a Dublin-based software company, was asked by Enterprise Ireland to work with the European Space Agency to develop an internet-based software application to assist astronauts in undertaking different procedures on board the international space station.

"They wanted us to develop a generic interface that will walk a user through a very complex task and ensure they do it correctly," Ms Sarah Bourke, one of the two directors of Skytek, explains.

Her partner, Mr Paul Kiernan, had the expertise in internet technology and Web interface so, two years ago, they started work on what was then called WebACT and now has been re-branded as COReCT.

"The main features are that it's developed using XML technology and the system is intelligent in the sense that it allows you and me to undertake emergency repair. You won't know the complexity. There is an authoring tool that goes with it: the system will automatically understand it. The only competition is a paper manual or a bespoke interface for one particular piece of equipment. We put the paper manual online and brought to it all the power of a computer," she explains.

Dr Brendan Cunniffe was in third year in mechanical engineering in NUI Galway when he went on a work placement to Medtronic AVE in Galway. The company, which is a large manufacturer of medical devices including catheters, gave him a final-year project to develop computer simulation software for the design of minimally invasive devices - angioplasty catheters - for use in the treatment of coronary artery disease.

"The work was to develop this computer modelling technology for the medical device industry, for angioplasty and finding applications in other areas," he explains.

Now working with the company's R&D department in Galway, Dr Cunniffe says the product is a world leader.

"It's virtual prototyping, allowing you to design the products on the computer before ever you go into the lab and design a piece.

"It's being used in the car industry and aerospace, and by other people, to a certain degree, in the medical industry, but we're the first to use it for the design of angioplastic products."

The project lasted four years and he gained his Master's and PhD in the process. But so secret is the technology that his thesis is being kept under lock and key for the next five years.

Videsti (formerly Viscon) was asked by RT╔ to help develop a new editing tool that would allow it to compile news bulletins and magazine programmes for less money and with fewer resources. The result is Newstrack, Videsti's submission for the awards.

"It's a product that allows the news production teams to streamline," Ms Brona McCarthy, the marketing manager, explains. "They can lengthen their deadlines so that, rather than getting copy in a few hours before, they can still be editing the programme while it's being transmitted.

"They wanted to be able to produce a larger number of news programmes and also wanted to produce programmes where they could react quicker to breaking stories when the full news team isn't there.

"They are hopefully going to be using it in a live environment in the near future."

Videsti, which employs 27 people in Dublin, has worked for television stations around the world. It is looking to produce a second version of Newstrack that will be more attractive commercially.

Mr Emmet Andrews is a general surgeon at Cork University Hospital, who has developed the Andrews Introducer, a surgical instrument to facilitate the introduction of an intercostal drain into the chest cavity during surgery.

"It was basically through difficulties I experienced in doing the procedure myself," he says. "There was no instrument available and I felt there should be something.

"We have patented it and the search has shown there is no similar instrument. We have done one clinical study of it in Cork," he adds.

Mr Andrews has set up Andrews Surgical Innovations with his sister, Sarah, a barrister, and he hopes to develop other ideas that will help surgeons.

The instrument has won the UCC Entrepreneurs Competition and was runner-up in the Medical Futures Innovations awards in London this year.

The National Innovation Awards are sponsored by Forfβs, PricewaterhouseCoopers and The Irish Times.

Mr John Travers, chief executive of Forfβs, said it was noticeable that many of the innovations that had emerged this year had put the businesses responsible for them at the leading edge, not just in the Republic, but in the world.

"The fact that innovation is not confined to young companies nor to small start-ups is particularly encouraging," he says.