Professor Peter Clinch:

I will start with the question about challenges. There is a commitment in Innovation 2020 to reach a research intensity of 2.5% of GNP. We are a distance from that, partly because the economy has gone very well so that percentage of GNP becomes harder to reach. That will make it critical that we work with universities, institutes of technology and the new technological universities to develop ways of achieving matching funding.

At the recent launch of the centres, Mark Ferguson, the chief executive officer, set out a model of funding in thirds. One third is State funding directly through SFI because it only funds public institutions. One third comes from industry and there has already been a commitment to the centre which is fantastic. The other third is raised in Horizon 2020 funding and Horizon Europe comes after that.

The significant challenge for the organisation will be to achieve those targets and, under the new Horizon Europe programme, ensure that the researchers are successful. That is a slight risk for the organisation because the researchers in the institutions raise the funding, not the organisation itself. That is the area in which co-operation is critical.

We must be realistic in a constrained funding environment because all organisations would like more investment and many areas are competing for it. The challenge for SFI is to make the case for that funding and ensure it is used efficiently. It is impressive that SFI spends less than 7% of its budget on itself and the vast majority is disseminated. That is very positive and stacks up very well against other State organisations. We will continue to push for efficiency in the operation.

There are also opportunities to engage further. There is already good co-operation with four of the leading universities in the UK on joint appointments. There have been very good negotiations with our counterparts in the UK and elsewhere on co-operating with other research funding agencies and there is an opportunity for greater co-operation on a North-South basis. Those are strategic areas which are important for developing further funding.

There will always be a challenge. If SFI is successful, it will create more centres and generate more private funding than it will be able to fund. As those centres are successful, they will continue and more centres will come forward. At the same time, we need to bring through the PhD students of tomorrow. SFI has a very large investment in PhDs at the moment which is fantastic. We must also bring through a pipeline of further researchers. We might generally say there is a 50:50 split in the funding but, as the organisation becomes more successful, the same pot needs to spread over a larger number of organisations, structures and programmes. That is the significant challenge for the organisation and it relates to the other points the committee members have made.

How do we sell the message that this is very important, not only for the medium-term success of the economy but also for people's well-being and for our ability to finance public services? This is critical. We cannot have the prosperity level that we have in this economy without having a very strong research base that secures our future.