Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Science Foundation Ireland - SFI

Ireland has traditional been renowned for its disproportionately high contribution to the arts and sport. It then showed its special skills by expanding its economy at a very rapid pace and giving birth to the “the Celtic Tiger”. The speed of growth in this phase has been matched by the speed of contraction but again Ireland is perhaps just ahead of other countries who are going to face similar problems of reconstruction.

The growth of the Irish economy based on increased exports was the slow consequence of a long period of investment by Ireland in education. At the right time Ireland had the right skill base for mobile advanced manufacturing and global players invested heavily in the country. Almost 10 years ago internal analysis recognised that the next phase of growth would require a higher level of skill and would be characterised by what is sometimes called a “knowledge economy”. Arising from this assessment the Irish government established Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and our task has been to ramp up the quality and quantity of scientific and engineering research performed in Ireland. In doing so, we are aware that there are three consequences of these investments: 1. an increase in the number of skilled scientists (PhDs); 2. an increase in the number of high-profile worldclass competitive research groups in areas that are very useful as adhesion points for companies that are shifting their R&D activities to Ireland; and 3. the occasional establishment of spin-off companies arising from the research performed in Ireland.

The invention-to-company road inevitably takes time and although there are some sparkling examples of successes here in Ireland their numerical impact is still small. What is not trivial however has been the conversion of Ireland from a location for manufacturing to a location for research and development activities of companies. This is most dramatically shown by the agreements supported by the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA Ireland) that is charged with attracting and retaining multinational companies to Ireland. Four years ago the investment that could be classified as R&D was minimal. For the last two years 42% of a growing number of agreements they were engaged in were in the space of R&D. There was hope and confidence therefore that the transformation of industries in Ireland is taking place. Within a European context this is an important development as it is a belief that all of Europe should be engaged in improving the economic output, and just as there is a European Research Area (ERA) in gestation equally there has to be a growing sense of a pan-European engagement in innovation and generation of high-quality, high-value jobs throughout the member states.

Below the high-level points made above there are some aspects which deserve particular comment. It is of course not inevitable that investing money in higher-education institutes would give rise to the linkages and attractions with industry and attractiveness to industry that is beginning to characterise the Irish scene. The first line of every decision that Science Foundation Ireland makes is that the research must be excellent and it is judged, most importantly, by international peer reviewers. In a small country (and from experience many larger countries) the invisible linkages between the applicants and the judge can distort outcomes or at a minimum bring conservatism into the decisions where a “well-known person” is very likely to obtain funding whereas a new arrival may have greater difficulties. The second component of SFI’s philosophy is that the research should have a consequence. The consequences are linked to the economy very clearly in our attitude. More specifically a technology foresight group decided when SFI was established that the areas of ICT and biotechnology (more accurately pharmaceuticals) would be of particular importance to Ireland and our funding has been directed there as a consequence. More recently, energy has been added to our zones of interest.

The task of making each of the research awards provide a greater outcome than is possible for the individual has also preoccupied SFI. At a very early stage, and benefiting from experience transferred to Ireland from the National Science Foundation in the United States, SFI established Centres for Science Engineering and Technology (CSETs). A limited number (nine to date) of these focus on areas of research that are of medium term, but high interest to companies. They include topics such as nanotechnology, sensors, advanced diagnostics, localisation, etc. Crucial to these centres was the need to take an all-Ireland view to what was necessary to make it truly successful. Collaborations between researchers in different institutions were stimulated in part by their mutual interest in having complementary research and also undoubtedly by the generous research support which is provided in the CSET programme (awards of E15 million are typical). Not only do the researchers have to work together, they also have to have established partnerships with industries who must contribute at least 25% of the overall budget of the centre. Different patterns have followed from this model depending on the area of activity. Some companies have placed some of their individuals in or close to the research groups that are in the CSETs. Others have provided not only cash but also prototypes and equipment, some have been very aligned to one sub-topic of the centre, others have been interested in the general area and their analysis and insights to the future of business in that sector have been an invaluable driver of the activities in the centre.

Following on the initial successes of the CSETs, SFI then launched a scaled-down version of these called Strategic Research Clusters (SRCs). eighteen SRCs have been established and these tend to be in more targeted areas such as drug delivery, animal infertility, plasma technology, immunology, glycoscience, etc. SFI requires SRCs to have an engagement by industry after a three-year period. We were surprised that almost all of the industries wished to get engaged both strategically and financially from the start of the SRCs. Again an interesting mesh has been created between communities of researchers, frequently working in different research institutes and industries (most but not all based in Ireland) and we are very optimistic that these will grow into very important entities in the future. A further development bringing industry and highereducation institutes together comes from a sister agency, Enterprise Ireland, who together with the IDA Ireland are developing Competence Centres. These are industry-led entities where the programme of activities is defined by industry but carried out under the direction of a technology leader, in higher-education institutes. These are at an early stage of development but again point to the multiple connections that have been formulated between researchers and industry.

Although the structuring of programmes can have direct and rapid impact on driving forward the connections between researchers in academia and industry, we’ve also been pleased to see that the spirit that has been promoted by SFI where there is a strong linkage between excellent research and economic consequences has been adapted by very many of the researchers that we support. Individual researchers getting their awards for their excellent science have shown themselves to be very active and available to work with industries even outside the programmes which are mentioned above. The fact that over 300 companies have frequent interaction with Irish researchers that SFI funds attests to a strong and growing understanding of the mutual benefits that this engagement brings. Not all of these are formal joint programmes although over 100 specific agreements had been put in place to govern these interactions.

The Irish scientific community has a good track record in working internationally. The European Framework Programmes have been a major stimulus to Irish research in the past. With the increased funding available through SFI there may have been some lessening of the enthusiasm for such funding not least because of the continued complexities of contractual interactions within the EU-funded activities. SFI is strongly of the opinion that the Irish scientists need to engage again with their European colleagues. Apart from sending direct messages to those that we fund on this topic, we have now introduced the track record of applicants in attracting external funding as a component of our judgement of proposals. We are confident that this will give rise to a much greater interest by Irish scientists in joint projects in Europe. The strengthening of the quality of the Irish science community (Ireland has moved from 24th to 17th in the ranking of countries by the impact of the scientific papers) should mean that many new opportunities will arise. We are particularly interested in supporting those projects that are at the interface of excellent science and economic or societal benefit. Our website address is www.sfi.ie and can be used by those who are outside Ireland who would wish to get introductions or knowledge about the most appropriate partners in Ireland.

Ireland’s involvement in EU has been very strong from the outset. The financial benefits to Ireland when it was at a precarious stage of development were essential to transforming the country. A less visible engagement by Ireland was in the domain of science and research. The strengthening of Irish science and the blend of research topics and skills which we now have available means that it is a good time to renew and extend these connections. By sharing the information on Ireland, as in this article, it is my hope that the linkages will be strengthened and believe that this would give rise to the mutual benefits.

Professor Frank Gannon,
Director General
Science Foundation Ireland

Science Foundation Ireland
Wilton Park House
Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
Tel: + 353 (0)1 6073200
Fax: + 353 (0)1 607 3201
E-mail: info@sfi.ie
Website: www.sfi.ie