Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The big ticket item at present is negotiating Horizon 2020, which is the next framework for research expenditure in the European Union. The Irish Presidency is chairing those negotiations, which will be subject to co-decision procedure with the Commission and the European Parliament. Horizon 2020 will offer a package of measures worth €70 billion or more, with a specific target of 20% for SME engagement compared to 15% in the current framework programme. We believe this will have a major stimulus effect in terms of SME engagement and job creation throughout the European Union and in Ireland in particular. Our overarching philosophy is to accelerate the economic and societal return from the public investment in research in order to deliver high quality jobs.

In addition to Horizon 2020, we are also implementing our own research prioritisation exercise which brings together the State funders of research. We have prioritised 14 key areas to maximise the economic and societal impact of our investment in research. A process is under way of developing the 14 action plans, involving all the State funders of research and the HEA to ensure maximum impact.

We are also pursuing smart investment in research centres at scale and with critical mass. In 2013, we announced seven new large scale SFI research centres supporting more than 800 scientists. These centres will enhance IDA's capacity to attract foreign direct investment. The recent €300 million announcement included €200 million from the State's funders of research and €100 million from industry. Many of the industrial players are in the FDI sector. Activities funded through the research centres include big data, advanced food research and marine energy research. Later this afternoon we will be discussing the extension of SFI's mandate to include applied research and to allow it to fund research proposals closer to the applied research arena in order to accelerate the exploitation of research for economic benefit. We are setting targets in a number of other areas, including high-potential start-up units, technology centres through the institutes of technology and the SFI funded strategic research clusters. I would be happy to speak further on these activities if members so wish.