Ireland looks to avail of research fund

UCC hosted 350 delegates from all over Europe looking to draft the ‘Cork Declaration’ which will be used to help design the legislative process for the EU’s next research and development programme, Horizon 2020.

Research and Innovation Minister Seán Sherlock, speaking at the opening of the Wire 2013 conference, said he was eager to make sure Ireland was in pole position to take advantage of the funding when it came on stream.

“I am also keen to ensure that we quickly progress Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy plans over the course of the months ahead as we prepare for the next round of EU structural funds, commencing in Jan 2014.”

However, one of the speakers, Ruslan Rakhmatullin from the European Commission for Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation, pointed out that Ireland hadn’t joined the smart specialisation platform.

“I am inviting Ireland, which is one of only four states who have not registered for the platform and haven’t availed of the supports that are available, to join,” he said.

Mr Rakhmatullin said that he had come to talk at the conference specifically to ask Ireland to join the platform which has been so successful that even non-EU countries such as Norway had applied to join.

“Ireland is welcome to join: it is a voluntary initiative, you don’t have to join, but should you be willing to take assistance from the commission with your strategies we are willing to help,” he said.

The importance of research and innovation to the Irish economy was stressed by the CEO of Enterprise Ireland Frank Ryan, who said that research and development was now the largest area of expenditure in his organisation.

“We spend more now on research and development than we do on any other area. Out of a budget of €350m, €100m is spent each year by Enterprise Ireland on encouraging both companies and researchers to engage in research and development, from micro-enterprise to the largest multinationals,” he said.

One of the companies who have used research and development is Kerry Group. Frank Hayes, director of corporate affairs, said “Our food and ingredients business is based on doing the innovation work on behalf of the who’s who of the global food and beverage industry. If you think of any single food or beverage product, or food service, it is companies like Kerry who provide the key research and development focus for those companies.”

Mr Hayes said that Kerry provides brands with the leading edge through research and looking at what the customer wants. Research is an area the company takes very seriously, spending 4.5% of group turnover on research.