Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

That is fantastic news about Kinsale Community College. It is a testament to the school and its ethos. It is also a testament to what I will not call a new-found interest in STEM but a growing interest in engaging with the STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics. There is a fearlessness among students now at post-primary level about taking on these projects. One can see it at the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition and in other science-related outreach programmes that are taking place with industry. There is a confidence among students to embrace new technologies. They are digital natives, as it were. However, there are still challenges, such as ensuring that an increasing number of students will engage with the hard sciences such as physics and chemistry. We must try to ensure there will be a throughput so these people will have the necessary skill set to slot into the jobs we have not yet even imagined, as Deputy Calleary described them. I join in the congratulations.

We have increased the target for engagement by SMEs from 15% to 20%. The Horizon 2020 target tallies with the current policy whereby the foreign direct investment sector and SME section in Ireland very much have an opportunity to now engage with the research infrastructure. Where a challenge is presented by an SME, it can bring that challenge to a research entity. There are means and mechanisms for funding, either through innovation vouchers or through the various research entities to bring the product to market.

The recent announcement of the €300 million was - but I will not call it a paradigm shift - a collaboration that involved over 150 industry partners bringing a €100 million in cash or in-kind contributions that was matched with a €200 million State investment to create seven new SFI research centres. The purpose is to drive innovation and allows one to turn good ideas into jobs in the first instance. Also, one can ensure that we will have a throughput, focus on and smartly specialise, where we will invest for the next five to ten year horizon.

The societal challenges contained in Horizon 2020 map onto our own priority research areas. For instance, we have identified 14 key areas that we will fund. Then industry will join with academia to create the new research entities. We have already announced quite a number of them and some of them are under way. Just last week we announced the enfant centre. It is an amalgamation of between seven to ten industry partners and Cork University Maternity Hospital and the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. Some of its work will be the development of perinatal research. There is also an expectation now that within the research infrastructure, we must deliver jobs, deliver for the economy and deliver new innovations for society. A clear challenge has been set for the research community but it maps onto the same challenges inherent in Horizon 2020.

A specific SME target has been set for research but the challenge is how to get the SMEs engaged. Let us say one has a traditional SME who has a traditional relationship with a county enterprise board, for example, or soon to be local enterprise office. How do we get them to start engaging with academia in a way to get leverage from research innovation on the products? How do we convey the idea that the SME must get the product to market and create jobs? We have sent strong signals to them through the agencies such as Enterprise Ireland which is mapped on to the research infrastructure. We have also conveyed the message through the various research entities that the Government expects to have a more proactive engagement with SMEs on the matter. I hope that I have answered the question.