Government launches EUR3.8bn science strategy

19-06-2006

by Maxim Kelly

The Government aims to spend EUR3.8 billion over the next seven years to further foster the successful Irish technology sector.

Some EUR2.7 billion of this investment will be spent on third-level research and the private sector before 2008. The new Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation will be an integral part of the Government's next National Development Plan which begins next year and runs until 2013. The technology initiative was presented by Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, and chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Science and Technology and Innovation, Micheal Martin, on Sunday, who said he expects to invest as much as EUR3.8 billion in scientific research over the seven-year lifespan of the initiative.

In a statement, the Government said this funding builds on the substantial funding of EUR658 million per annum in 2006 allocated to the strategy and includes a priority commitment of an additional EUR192 million for 2007 and 2008 over existing investments.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the investment was aimed at transforming Ireland into a knowledge society that will offer new opportunities for employment and social development.

"It will bring together researchers and innovators from all disciplines, including the physical and social sciences, arts and humanities, to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by an increasingly diverse world," he said at the announcement in Government Buildings.

The strategy is largely based on expanding Ireland's international reputation for scientific research and design, and the commercialisation of projects.

Speaking for the Council of Directors of the Institutes of Technology, Dr Tim Creedon of the Tallaght Institute welcomed the Government's announcement, adding that the Institutes' recent powers to confer PhDs will play an important role in the future.

"The investment in research infrastructure will enable the Institutes to work on a regional basis with industry to develop a robust, next generation enterprise platform which will ensure the competitiveness of Irish business into the future. It is by linking research and innovation, plus knowledge and skills to high-end manufacturing services in the regions that the whole of Ireland will reap the socio-economic benefits of this strategy," he said.

The new strategy aims for a doubling of postgraduates, with 1,000 PhDs every year by 2013 and a further 315 postgrads in the humanities and social sciences. The programme will also aim to get 1,000 Irish firms involved in R&D and increase spending in this area to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2013, up from its current level of 1.4 percent of GDP.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen said the Government had now placed R&D at centre stage in its economic strategy with an allocation of a five-fold increase in investment even over the course of the current National Development Plan.

"There is no room for complacency in what is a highly competitive and rapidly evolving environment. It is clear that we in Ireland, like many of our EU colleagues, still have some serious work to do. We are committed to that challenge," he said.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin reportedly ruled out incentivising Leaving Certificate subjects in order to encourage the greater uptake of science among students.

Instead the new national strategy on science and technology envisages a range of measures to enhance the attractiveness of higher maths, applied maths, physics and chemistry but stops short of a points incentive.