Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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7. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills given the value he places on clusters of third level institutions and innovation hubs, if there are clear pathways and supports in place for establishing and expanding such hubs in the west of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56014/25]

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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25. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps being taken to develop co-operation and relationships between third level institutions and industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56041/25]

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister to state, given the value placed on clusters of third level institutions and innovation hubs, whether there are clear pathways and supports in place for establishing and expanding such hubs, especially in the west. I raise that in the context of a very successful urological-surgical innovation hub based at Atlantic Technological University, ATU, in Galway, in collaboration with the University of Illinois Chicago.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 25 together

Gabhaim buíochas le Teachta Daly. Deputy Timmins is on this question as well. The question refers to the collaboration between innovation hubs, industry and third level institutions. My Department has, I believe a strong economic focus; it should have and does have. I am committed to making sure this is an economic Ministry that drives the needs of industry and engages with industry, labour force planning and skills development and the critical role of research and development in driving that knowledge economy. We should be working very closely with industry and taking the lead from skills needs of the future. The national skills group is working on that and on understanding what the projected needs are while supporting and collaborating with industry.

That collaboration between the tertiary system across all the different educational frameworks and enterprise is critical. I have underpinned that through a number of strategic engagements with enterprise agencies such as IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, with representative bodies such as IBEC, ISME and others, individual enterprises and multinationals and indeed many firms that are leading-edge in technology and research and who are active in Ireland, including in Deputy Daly's region. He will be familiar with them. Part of that is driven at a policy level through platforms, including the national skills council, which I mentioned; the regional skills forums, where we understand the current market needs and emerging needs of the labour force; real-time insights from partners working in sectors; and then programmes like Springboard+, Microcredentials and Microqualifications and Skills to Advance. These look at the skills needs and how industry and the education sector can work together and supply different course offerings that are tailored and flexible to the needs of the learner, particularly the working learner, who might take a full-time offering but will perhaps take a microcredit and plug one on top of the other to gain a further qualification.

There is also the Research Ireland accelerating research to commercialisation, ARC, hubs programme, cofunded by Department and the Government with support from the EU. It aims to establish new models for regional innovation and entrepreneurial training. That looks to accelerate the transition to the market of research coming from a higher education institute. It is from the fab to the lab, as we say in the case of semiconductors; similarly, it applies to many other fields as well. That is so important because academics are often performing an outstanding piece of work but they may not be equipped to take it to the next level - to the market, and to commercialise it or even bring it to mass production to benefit many more people.

I am engaging with the Deputy on the urology project he advocated for. It is a very interesting project. It is a good example of where we can take that industry collaboration and plug it into the research ecosystem. There is a synergy and it lifts all. I welcome it and I am quite keen to engage further on that one. There are many others, if we look at the ARC hub and for health and tech. I was at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, RCSI, yesterday. It has a collaboration with the ATU on health technology. It has also been working through that. There is a western regional skills forum that allows business in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon to assess and develop skills for their employees and work in partnership with them.

On the technological universities more generally, one of their aims is to provide technical expertise rooted in the regions, working with and close to industry to allow that local and regional collaboration to progress. That is such an important project and I am very committed that. There are a number of initiatives I want to roll out further within the technological universities over the course of this year and subsequent years. There is a lot of work going on. A lot done, more to do.

David Maxwell (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Daly is sharing time with Deputy Timmins.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I was unsure.

I thank the Minister. In this model with the University of Illinois Chicago, extending into other areas of medicine is talked about. Urology is the template they have used in ATU. It provides expertise based on research and innovation. It has developed a venture studio model, which draws on the experience of world-class entrepreneurs and scientists that mentor researchers to bring their work to start-up. That is the important link. We have a lot of research going on but it is about bringing that research into the real world and mentoring the people who have done the research so they can bring it to business. That is what we are aiming for. I am assured it has a long track record in this area and because of its reputation, it has the ability to attract major investors.

I appreciate the Minister's engagement on this matter. He might make a statement as well on the new supercomputer collaboration with the University of Galway.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister. He certainly seems well aware of the importance of the third level link with industry so he has certainly answered my first question.

I want to make another couple of points. I have seen examples over the years where third level institutes have linked in with industry. This has worked really well. It also offers graduates employment opportunities in industries located close to their colleges. This is especially true in the areas of technology, science and engineering. As well as benefiting graduates in the institutions, it also means the industries are more embedded in the area. Both the third level institutions and the industry feed off each other and offer huge benefits to both sides. I ask the Minister to do everything in his power to develop these relationships.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank both Deputies. I will respond to Deputy Daly on the urology project. It is a project I am very keen to explore further and there are already a number of projects like that we are developing in the regions. The New Frontiers programme in Castlebar and Galway has a start-up ecosystem working with ATU, and perhaps the urology project could be done along the same lines.

On the supercomputer, I was very keen when I came into this Department that Ireland should remain at the leading edge of digital, quantum and artificial intelligence. That requires significant computing power. We need a supercomputer. All of the most advanced research activity generates huge datasets. Storage and computational power are needed to make sense of those and make discoveries. I initiated the process of procuring a new supercomputer that will be managed by the University of Galway. The Irish Centre for High-End Computing is already in the University of Galway. It is doing a tremendous job on that. In fact, the Galway-led bid we submitted to the European HPC facility came third out of 17. It was very highly ranked and strongly received. We are also pursuing an AI antenna, an artificial intelligence factory that plugs into Luxembourg and France and allows collaboration at an EU level in those areas. It is so important if we are to remain at the forefront. We are talking about digital technologies but there are also health informatics, digital public services and the power to assimilate and understand data for all kinds of modelling, such as climate and transport. Many areas of public need can now be met by that and require that power. I am keen that we remain at the forefront of that.

Deputy Timmins is absolutely right about collaboration with industry and how we make sure that lands and succeeds. Some of the things I want to embed or offer as ancillary supports for postgraduate students include communications and enterprise modules. Start-ups and spin-outs should be encouraged as well. Yes, we want researchers publishing citations, papers and publications but we also want to see campus companies beginning to come out again, giving enterprise a lift. There are some collaborations; iBio in UL is one such collaboration with industry. I would like to develop more programmes that are copartnered.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister. When speaking to the group of people involved in this project in Galway, one of the points they made was that there are many institutions in the United States which, in the current climate, are looking for bases in the European Union. Ireland has this opportunity. We talk about the threat of tariffs and the difficulties in getting new industry here. We will hold our existing industry, but the concern is that down the road research and development will move away from us. There is an opportunity to reverse this flow and get this expertise from world-class universities in the United States to base their research hubs in Ireland. They have assured me they can base their hub anywhere. I mentioned Ballinasloe, which is in my constituency, but they would be happy to base anywhere. With technology and the use of high-grade computers, they can carry out their research in collaboration with institutions in Ireland.

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I absolutely agree this is part of the response to the challenges posed by the changing trade and tariff situation. We are entering an age of deglobalisation. We also have many other factors to contend with. It is important we maintain that industrial base and that knowledge economy we fought so hard to develop over the past 30 or 40 years. The key to that is the knowledge economy and investment in research, innovation and education. In terms of stickiness, it is easier to move a factory offshore than it is to move a research hub because the deeper dive performed within the area, the harder it is to replicate it and move elsewhere. We need to continue and invest. That is why I am working with agencies like the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

In terms of mobile talent, talent is our greatest natural asset, and we have some wonderful talent on this island. It is my job to nurture, foster, support and grow that through investment in education and all that we are doing. I am mindful there are many who may be considering relocating from the United States perhaps, or other jurisdictions due to changing trends in their home states. I recently put out a global talent initiative, which is a call to invite researchers from outside of Ireland, including the United States, to consider relocating here. Those people typically come in two categories, naming rising stars, which are young people on the up and who have made a name for themselves but are still forging their path through academia, and established people, who have a very strong record. Both types bring excitement, energy and often funding with them and can contribute significantly to the development of a particular area. I am going to single out Professor J.C. Seamus Davis, an academic in quantum computing in University College Cork. I visited his lab recently. He works in partnership with Tyndall National Institute. He is doing amazing, world-leading research in semiconductors, which is a key part of the global supply chain and a key part of Irish industry. He came through initiatives such as that a number of years ago. One or two people can bring such a critical mass with them that they can develop an entirely new hub or an entirely new research programme or collaboration.

I also intend to announce funding for a new research infrastructure programme in the next number of weeks which will set the foundation layer for equipment, laboratories, computing power and all the base layer that is required to build this because we need a solid foundation to let this work happen. It is critical to our economy and society that we should do so.