Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 May 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

IBEC and Science Foundation Ireland: Discussion

Dr. Ruth Freeman:

SMEs are definitely responding and we are going out of our way to try to engage with them. As Ms McGee said, if we can get in the door and break down the barrier, we can unlock possibilities. Perhaps the problems that SMEs think they have are not the problems they actually have. We are finding that we need to build on that base of researchers. We need enough researchers in the system to respond. They are also busy and doing 100 things, including teaching and everything else.