Shane McEntee (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 46: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the barriers to the commercialisation of research and development which exist; the steps he plans to take to remove same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11341/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Very significant growth in research has been achieved through the commitment of €2.5 billion to science, technology and innovation across a range of Departments under the current NDP. The Government is committed to continuing to invest in research and development. Investment to date has been critical in developing the base of knowledge, discoveries and new ideas from which new products, services and enterprises can be generated and substantial efforts have also been made to ensure that this research can be commercialised.

Effective commercialisation is dependent on a clear framework for intellectual property rights arising from research. In that context, two national codes of practice for managing intellectual property, for fully and partly publicly funded research, respectively, have been published under the aegis of the Advisory Science Council.

EI supports the construction of campus based business incubation centres in all institutes of technology and universities. To date, it has approved 25 incubation centres, 16 of which are in institutes of technology or equivalent third level colleges, and a further nine of which are on university campuses. Specific incentives are also in place under the aegis of EI to support collaborative research involving firms and higher education institutions.

Currently, my Department is working with the enterprise agencies, Science Foundation Ireland and the Higher Education Authority on the development of a measure to further strengthen and support the technology transfer function in the higher education institutions to ensure that ideas generated from research are more effectively captured and brought to market. The commercialisation of research will continue to be a major area of focus by Government to ensure that investment in research is leveraged as effectively as possible for the economic benefit of the country.