Seanad debates
Wednesday, 5 February 2003
Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Bill 2002: Second Stage.
Let us consider the position of the foresight panel on pharmaceuticals, to which Tánaiste referred. There are two stages to research and development: first, the identification of a new idea or invention that will do something not done heretofore; and, second, turning the latter into a commercial product. One of the problems Britain, for example, has had for the past 30 years is that it has done well in discovering new things which have then been promptly commercialised on the other side of the Atlantic. The intermediary role of taking something from the initial discovery to commercial product involves more than scientists, it involves the profession – engineering – in which I, to a certain extent, am involved.
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