The public research body Science Foundation Ireland’s 2009-2013 strategy, Powering the Smart Economy, sees R&D as the engine of job creation and as the means of attracting high tech inward investment to rebuild the country’s industrial base.
High quality research will result in new jobs, increase competitiveness and capitalise public investment in higher education, said the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan. “The focus of the SFI strategy on further strengthening research capacity and linkages with industry is at the heart of the government’s drive to create a new dynamism between our educational institutions and commercial enterprises.”
Earlier this month, Ireland’s two top universities, Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD), announced that they intend to play their part in rescuing the economy by merging their technology transfer and commercialisation arms in an ten-year, €650 million “Innovation Alliance.”
As part of the “national recovery initiative”, the Innovation Alliance will work with the education sector, the state and its agencies, and the business and venture capital communities, “to develop a world-class ecosystem for innovation that will drive enterprise development and the creation of sustainable high value jobs.”
The Provost of TCD John Hegarty and UCD President Hugh Brady said they were responding to “a time of national crisis.” By forming the Innovation Alliance, the universities are recognising the need to evolve and play a powerful role within the country’s innovation ecosystem.
Brady and Hegarty said, “The creation of lasting jobs is the only solution for the country. We want to boost the university contribution to enterprise development by equipping graduates with the skills and ambition to be job creators rather than job seekers. Our alliance builds on the tradition of collaboration and achievement by our two institutions, but marks a sea change in how education and research sets up to create jobs.”
Ireland is not alone
Ireland is not alone in giving science a central role in attempts to close the economic black hole created by the breakdown of the financial system. In the UK, an argument is raging over the merits of two proposed £1 billion science stimulus plans, with the universities and research councils vying with industry groups like the BioIndustry Association and funding bodies such as the Technology Strategy Board and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts).
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama is backing R&D to reform the country’s healthcare system, end dependency on fossil fuel imports, deal with global warming and rescue the economy.
This vision of science as economic saviour is unprecedented, as European Science Commission Janez Potocnik noted in a speech made last week as he accepted an honorary degree from the University of Ghent. Picture, he said, if we had been in this position twenty or thirty years ago: “I can imagine the reaction. Public and private research budgets would have been drastically cut. The perception which then prevailed was that science, like arts, was a kind of luxury that society can afford in times of prosperity.”
Today, however, EU leaders and governments want to improve investment in knowledge, research and education. “That is new,” Potocnik claimed. “Today, few doubt that sustaining our prosperity increasingly depends on our investment in research, education and innovation.”
The exemplar, of course, is Finland. Faced with a shrinking economy and high unemployment after the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the country prioritised investment in R&D. Now it boasts one of the world’s most competitive economies.
It follows that the recession is no time for a break in research investment, Potocnik said, adding, “Those countries which continue to innovate will emerge stronger from the crisis and reap the benefits of the next economic upturn.”
Preparing for the recovery
That is certainly the hope of the Irish government and Science Foundation Ireland. “While most of the focus in economic commentaries of late has, understandably, been on the short-term, it is essential that we prepare for the new global environment that will exist after this recession,” said the Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, Frank Gannon, launching the strategy.
“We need to look closely and critically at how Ireland will then be positioned after the recovery. Ireland will have to be able to win exports by being the location from where new, essential and complex products originate,” Gannon said. “This can only happen if we give the necessary support, even in these difficult times to our high quality research and development.”
The 2009–2013 plan will focus on four objectives:
Human Capital: Building internationally competitive research teams in the sciences and engineering, underpinning biotechnology, information technology, and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technology sectors. This will give the country the capacity to identify, acquire and deploy externally developed technologies, and mean that Ireland is well-placed to attract inward investment.
Quality Output: Ensuring that SFI-funded research teams continue to produce the highest quality published output. This is seen as the best external endorsement of the scientific value obtained from research investment.
Global Reputation: Increasing Ireland’s reputation as a location for scientific research and as a source of human and knowledge capital, so that businesses creating next-generation products and services are attracted to the country.
Knowledge Transfer: Providing assistance to the technology transfer/ translational industries in Ireland, and growing partnerships to promote expansion of the country’s research, development and innovation footprint.
Overall, the strategy emphasises the relationship between scientific excellence and economic impact. SFI research money will be targeted more directly in the areas of greatest value to Ireland’s long-term competitiveness and development.
Powering the Smart Economy, SFI Strategy 2009-2013
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