Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This morning on radio I heard Deputy Joe Higgins describe this debate as narcissistic. However, I view it as an opportunity to explain to the House what I am doing in the area of research and innovation and what endeavours are under way in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. My aim is as much to inform the House on ongoing developments as to articulate - I will not use the word "celebrate" - the achievements of the Government to date, given that 250,000 jobs were destroyed during the three years prior to our taking office. It is only right and proper that we should come to the House to give an account to the tribunes of the people. I would not describe myself as a narcissist. These days when I pass a mirror, I tend to avoid looking at my reflection. My hair is receding and turning somewhat grey, while my waistline is expanding. Similarly, I think it is unfair to describe the Government as narcissistic.

The Government recognises that we must employ the best of our research and innovation infrastructure to create jobs. Its strategy is to accelerate the economic and societal return on our science, technology and innovation investment, to further strengthen enterprise engagement and take-up of public research and to drive commercialisation. In other words, we want to turn good ideas into jobs. In this way, implementation of research prioritisation which has been under way since March 2012 will see the majority of public research funding aligned with 14 priority areas. These are the areas in which we are most likely to get economic and societal returns, particularly in the form of jobs, as well as underpinning platform areas of science and technology and certain integrating infrastructure to support the priority areas. Instead of putting all of our eggs into the construction basket, we are investing taxpayers' money smartly in areas in which we know we will get a return not only for large urban areas but also in regional development. The report of the research prioritisation steering group identified the 14 areas of opportunity which should receive the majority of competitive public investment in science, technology and innovation in the coming five years. The areas were identified on the basis of existing strengths of the public research system, strengths of the indigenous and foreign direct investment enterprise base, opportunities in the global marketplace and the potential to deliver jobs. A key goal in the process of research prioritisation will be a significantly enhanced focus on collaborative research with enterprise by growing the number of researchers in enterprise and enhancing the flow of researchers between academia and enterprise.

The whole-of-government prioritisation action group which I chair is tasked with implementing research prioritisation and significant progress has been made since its inaugural meeting in the spring of 2012. The group operates under the broader authority of the Cabinet committee on economic recovery and jobs and meets on a regular basis. The priority areas encompass the areas of energy, food, health, ICT and innovation in business processes and services. Considerable activity has emerged from each of these core areas not only in Dublin, Cork and Limerick but also through the institutes of technology which have a wider regional constitution. Action plans have been developed for each of the priority areas to identify the actions required across research funding organisations. Engagement with relevant stakeholders on the draft action plans took place at the end of 2012 and the plans were approved by the Government in June 2013. Many of the actions focused on addressing specific needs of enterprise in the research community and ensuring appropriate funding was put in place to underpin these 14 areas.

Coupled with that, during the Presidency of the Council of the European Union which Ireland held, I was a party to the negotiation on Horizon 2020, an €80 billion fund which is one of the most significant pillars of EU funding. We have set a target for Ireland to draw down €1.8 billion during the lifetime of that programme. I chaired some of the negotiations on that pillar of funding. I am proud to say that the delivery of €1.25 billion to Irish academic institutions partnering with industry will allow us to create the types of job we need to disrupt that flow of emigration so that when graduates are coming out of the universities and institutes of technology there are potential pathways for them to map onto the areas of opportunity of which I spoke, such as ICT, food and medical devices, in a way that allows for them to gain the necessary accreditation from tertiary up to PhD level, but also encourages the creation of the intellectual property and new innovations that are so vital to industry in a way that creates jobs.

We have also, since 2012, put in place a new intellectual property protocol. This outlines new structures to encourage more businesses to commercialise research and development by ensuring that they can access the results of State-funded research with greater clarity and certainty. Any business that has an idea can take that idea to an academic institution to see whether it can innovate in a way that creates wealth, new intellectual property, new licensing and, ultimately, jobs, because this is what it is all about. The prioritisation action group, PAG, is also considering how application procedures for research funding can be adjusted to assess relevance to and impact on the priority areas. We have a core standard. It is an excellent standard that is monitored by Science Foundation Ireland, which is leading the way as the core funding agency in this regard.

Furthermore, in response to recommendations to align the supply and demand of trained researchers, the Irish Research Council has rolled out an employment-based PhD and master's degree programme in which awardees will be employees, with the majority of time spent in-company. Rather than having PhDs staying within academia - the vast majority of them move out into industry anyway - we are, through a structured PhD, encouraging an increasing number to spend time in companies during the course of their PhD work. This is vital to disrupting the pattern, in a positive sense, to create more companies, spin-outs and spin-ins to sustain the economy for the future.

We have created seven world-class Science Foundation Ireland research centres, which we will fund over six years. These centres support the key growth areas. The Higher Education Authority has undertaken a national inventory of all significant publicly funded infrastructure and equipment, and an online portal is being developed. In parallel with compiling this national inventory of all research equipment of large infrastructure, the HEA has developed guidelines for third level institutions on providing access to users from the institutions and enterprise. We are opening up the infrastructure to enterprises and to other institutions so that it is not kept within silos and individual institutions are not proprietorial about the pieces of infrastructure they have within their campuses. We are trying to open up the landscape and break down the silos in a way that allows for greater collaboration, not only in a politically expedient way between institutions, but in a deeper way. It is important that we do so because we are such a small country.

The Higher Education Authority, in co-operation with Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, is currently developing a consistent quality framework for postgraduate education and training, incorporating the structured PhD model.

Research prioritisation is about enhancing the relevance and impact of the public investment in research while maintaining the excellence of our research base, further strengthening enterprise engagement and take-up of public research, and driving commercialisation. This is an apolitical space. No one political philosophy in this House underpins what we are doing. I would give due credit to previous Governments that laid the foundations for where we are now through the programme for research in third-level institutions, which allowed us to build out the bricks and mortar. The current paradigm is to drive public investment in research and innovation that yields the maximum impact for society. With seven large-scale SFI centres, we believe that partnership between industry, Government and academia allows the creation of economies of scale in a way that allows us to leverage the opportunities of Horizon 2020, the EU funding stream of €80 billion, which was negotiated on the basis of our studying the great societal challenges of our time - aging, food, health, transport, smart grids, smart cities, etc. By working in parallel with those thematic areas in Ireland, we will achieve greater leveraging opportunities. We believe that by adopting this simple philosophy we will create an impact within a three- to five-year period. It is making an investment for the future. It goes beyond a typical five-year Government mandate. We are trying to lay down a foundation for the next phase of development from the point of view of research and innovation. Over the next six years, the total investment will be over €300 million. SFI, through its multi-annual programme, will provide €200 million and industry will come up with €100 million, in cash and in-kind contributions. By bringing industry to partner with the academic institutions through the creation of these centres, we will create an international impact.

The process is collaborative and, as I have said, it works across all institutions. Its purpose is also to map out new opportunities with other jurisdictions. We are strongly of the view that we can collaborate more with Northern Ireland and are aware of the opportunities that will exist between institutions on both sides of the Border. When we launched Horizon at national level, we were cognisant of the need to ensure that, by partnering with institutions in the North, we could create economies of scale that would allow greater leveraging for funding opportunities across each of the thematic areas of which I spoke earlier.

We have 156 distinct companies across seven research centres. There will be more research centres to come. Our creation of seven centres of a significant scale has been a success, but we must carefully monitor its impact. We have put in place a set of metrics - clear indicators. If it is taxpayers' money, we must ensure we achieve that impact and are monitoring the work of each of those seven centres. However, the seven centres involve all of the academic institutions in some way, shape or form, and as I stated, it is based along thematic lines. In the research centres, the areas on which we are focusing include big data, data analytics and marine renewable energy. We are looking outwards, towards the sea. People talk about our being a maritime nation. We are looking at the potential for marine renewable energy. We are bringing a lot of industry partners into that and a new maritime research centre is being created in Cork. We are also looking at pharmaceutical manufacturing - in which there are lots of activities throughout the country - as well as drug synthesis, connected health, neonatal care, photonics, and functional foods. We are looking not only at the production of core food products but also at the areas of gut health, in which one can add additional functionality to foods, for example, from the point of view of delivering medicines. We are looking at the next phase of food production.

We are also looking at nanotechnology. All of these areas are ones in which Ireland is a significant international leader. We are not starting afresh on the journey. These are areas of core competence in which Ireland has a significant international reputation. This allows us to bring in industry that has been long established and new companies to partner with us to try to create the necessary impact. These are multidisciplinary research teams which cut across enterprise, education, health, the public sector, energy and the environment.

In the jobs announcements in 2013 Science Foundation Ireland, SFI had links with 72% of IDA Ireland jobs announcements. The kernel of that is that more of the wins in the foreign direct investment sector are predicated on our strong research and innovation base. It is all about human capital, not just corporation tax. The investment created through IDA Ireland is also predicated on this strong research and development base. We must continue to focus on this and not take the foot off the pedal. The number of jobs associated with the 30 projects was 1,757, of which SFI had links with 1,265. SFI directly supports a cohort of approximately 3,000 researchers across Ireland's higher education institutes.

With regard to the policy area for which I have responsibility, science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, we are very much aware of the current Project Maths process. We are driving through the education system a need for greater conceptual understanding by all students of mathematical and scientific concepts. The bonus points for mathematics at post-primary level and Project Maths are having an impact. There will be challenges further down the line. As long as the universities and the higher education institutes control the CAO and CAS systems, there will be a challenge in respect of inflating points where demand increases. We are cognisant of this point. We have also set up a STEM educational review group chaired by Professor Brian McCraith of DCU. We are looking at introducing industry to partner the Department of Education and Skills to move beyond the disparate number of STEM-related projects happening throughout the country. We have many great STEM-related activities that encourage greater understanding by primary and post-primary students in the area of STEM, but we want a national co-ordinated approach. If we partner with industry in a more co-ordinated way, the hope is industry will begin to contribute upfront cash to replicate it in areas that do not have this kind of activity.

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