John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 205: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the measures he is putting in place to ensure that the investments being undertaken in his research and development policy deliver value for money; the way the outputs from investment will be measured in relation to inputs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13278/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-2013 contains a significant number of clear quantitative goals, progress towards attainment of which will be regularly tracked. Notable examples of these include the commitment to double our annual output of Science, Engineering and Technology PhDs to 997 by 2013; to increase the annual output of Humanities and Social Sciences PhDs from 187 in 2003 to 315 by 2013; to grow the number of Principal Investigators by 350 by 2013 and postdoctoral researchers by 1,050; to grow annual Business Investment in R & D by almost 150% to €2.5bn by 2013; to grow the number of indigenous companies with R&D activity over €100,000 from 462 in 2003 to 1050 by 2013; to grow the number of indigenous companies with R&D activity over €2,000,000 from 21 in 2003 to 100 by 2013; to grow the number of foreign affiliate companies performing significant R&D from 60 in 2003 to 150 by 2013.

Progress against these headline indicators will be closely monitored by the Interdepartmental Committee on STI, chaired by my Department which reports to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation. I can assure the Deputy that a more comprehensive set of indicators for the measurement of the efficiency and effectiveness of our substantial investment under the Government's Strategy for Science Technology & Innovation 2006-13 is currently being developed under the aegis of the Interdepartmental Committee. This will address both the quantitative and qualitative goals of the Strategy.

Within this overall approach, specific value for money reviews will also take place. This year specific reviews will be carried out on Science Foundation Ireland and the Discover Science and Engineering awareness programme. The overall measurement process will also be informed by the Expenditure Review of Spending on Science & Technology, which took place in 2004.