A major step in our rehabilitation
Seán Sherlock: 50% of new IDA clients are linked to Science Foundation Ireland researchers
THE Government is ramping up its investment in scientific research in a manner which is closely aligned to industry and enterprise needs, job opportunities, and societal goals.
About €200m of exchequer funding will be invested in seven world-class research centres over the next six years through Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) research centres programme.
This includes €100m cash and in-kind contribution from industry, making it the largest ever state/industry co-funded research announcement of its kind in Ireland.
The announcement marks the delivery of a number of comm-itments in the jobs action plan and comes just a month after we announced €60.8m in SFI principal investigator awards and last November’s €30m SFI research infrastructure awards.
There are 156 industry partners — such as BT, Cisco, Eli Lilly, ESB, GSK, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Intune Networks, Kerry Group, Microsoft, Medtronic and Pfizer — are connected to the seven centres. Others are likely to join as they see this strong commitment from the Government.
The research being conducted will be gamechangers for Ireland in areas such as big data, marine energy, food for health, nanotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.
The €300m investment will support more than 800 talented scientists who will develop cutting-edge research, new technologies and attract dynamic partnerships with industry — helping to deliver the quality jobs of the future that we need.
The sheer scale of the industry involvement with a commitment of more than €100m so far, is a major endorsement of our research capability as industry globally, clearly recognises that Ireland is a really good country in which to conduct business.
Another important factor to recognise is the ever-increasing relevance of research to IDA Ireland’s foreign direct investment wins. These centres will certainly further enhance IDA’s “Ireland: Value Proposition” and should enable us to win against fierce global competition in a number of high-tech areas.
Last year, nearly 50% of IDA’s new client companies were linked to SFI researchers — amounting to 4,575 jobs.
This announcement delivers another milestone for the Government’s research objectives — an important part of my remit.
Each centre proposal was examined by more than 100 eminent scientists, R&D leaders, industrialists, and hi-tech investors from around the globe over the past year.
These experts have deemed that these centres are in the areas that Ireland needs to go for now — with comments such as “a research dream team, making Ireland the envy of many in this field” and “truly world-class centre comparable to anywhere in the world — be it Harvard, MIT or Imperial College”.
This major investment is another step on the way to our economic rehabilitation and a brighter future.
*Seán Sherlock is the minister for research and innovation
