Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way his Department will contribute to the doubling of PhDs in science, engineering and technology; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19000/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Education and Science has primary responsibility for the higher education sector, from which the PhDs will graduate. However, the target of doubling the number of PhDs is at the heart of the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-13 and a number of Departments and Agencies are contributing to the delivery of that goal, including my own Department, which chairs the Interdepartmental Committee overseeing the implementation of the STI Strategy.

In that context, in addition to that overarching role, my Department is contributing to the doubling of PhDs in a range of specific ways including; building the necessary pipeline of students from primary and through the secondary level through the expansion of our highly successful awareness programme — "Discover Science and Engineering"; attracting, encouraging and developing a high level of business R&D performance and supporting the absorptive capacity of industry so that a PhD is seen as a tangible route to an excellent career in this country; working with the agencies — IDA, EI, Forfás and SFI, to place research and the knowledge economy at the core of our economic development and strategic thinking, raising Ireland to world-class level in terms of research performance; supporting EU initiatives to encourage researcher mobility, which will attract more top level research performers from overseas to supplement our home-grown talent; and examining with the Advisory Science Council and the higher education sector the complex and important issue of researcher career development.

In addition, as part of our coordinating role, my Department is chairing a working group, under the Higher Education Research Group, on the development of key performance indicators, by which the delivery of the STI Strategy as a whole, including the doubling of PhDs, will be monitored and reviewed.