Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes, definitely. There are always calls for more centres. We are prioritising and trying to focus our spending. SFI is working through seven centres at the moment and hopes to make announcements on additional centres in the future. It is trying to target its resources carefully. Members of this committee visited the Tyndall National Institute research centre and saw the great bang we are getting from our buck there. We hope to increase the number of centres as we go forward. The demand is there but we are constantly trying to get industry to invest more in this area. The whole agenda with commercialisation is to get SMEs involved in research and in using that research. The knowledge transfer office which was set up last May is worthwhile and is helping to drive the use of research.