Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 130: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the progress made regarding the commitment given in the renewed programme for Government to expand the role of innovation vouchers in allowing growing local enterprises bridge the innovation gap in getting their products or services to the market; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36380/10]

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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The objective of the Innovation Voucher Initiative is to facilitate and encourage enterprises, in particular small enterprises, to engage in research or development by availing of the services available from research institutions. The programme provides vouchers worth €5,000 to enable a small business to seek assistance, whether skill or knowledge, from publicly funded researchers to address problems or proposals in relation to the business activity.

The Initiative aims to drive an innovation cultural shift within small enterprise by promoting and encouraging a transfer of knowledge between Ireland's public knowledge providers and the small business community and in the process creating on-going and lasting synergies between the two. Small companies across the Irish economy are eligible to apply for an Innovation Voucher, apart from enterprises in the transportation and agricultural sectors which are excluded in accordance with EU State Aid guidelines. Companies can apply for more than one voucher and up to 10 companies may pool their vouchers for a single project.

Innovation Vouchers can be used for any kind of innovation such as:-

new business model development;

new service delivery and customer interface;

new service development; or

tailored training in innovation management.

Through this initiative Irish companies are being supported to rapidly and effectively develop and commercialise new processes, products and services, profitably. They are helped to acquire, develop and integrate the technologies and supporting knowledge required. They are also supported in developing the leadership skills and capability of company management necessary to drive innovation.

The level of interest and engagement by companies speaks for itself - 1098 Vouchers worth almost €5 million have been redeemed by small companies since the programme was launched in mid-2007. The initiative is clearly both successful and popular with small Irish business. It is playing an important role by opening up access for small companies to a wide source of innovative acumen. It has also encouraged a transfer of knowledge between Third Level educational institutions or research providers to the business community, very often at local level.

Feedback from companies has been positive, confirming that the application procedures, level of funding, the low level of bureaucracy and the frequency of calls are welcome features of the initiative. Since the programme was introduced, Enterprise Ireland has continued to improved the support and assistance that is provided to assist the engagement of companies with the third level sector. A web site was introduced to assist companies in identifying the location of the various areas of skills and knowledge in academic and research institutions.

Companies can avail of two standard Innovation Vouchers totalling €10,000. After that they can avail of co-funded vouchers, a new initiative introduced in 2010. The Co-Funded Vouchers are awarded to companies who are willing to pay half the cost of the research project and to date 30 companies have availed of these new vouchers.

This year, discussions with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food led to an expansion of the scheme to target Food Companies, and a new Innovation Voucher call was introduced for the Food Sector. The call took place in July/August 2010 and resulted in the award of 114 (€570,000) vouchers aimed particularly at encouraging small food companies to begin collaborating with colleges. This is part of a new approach directed at building on the current success of the scheme and it is planned that other specific sectors will be targeted. Improvements will continue to be put in place, to make participation easier as experience is gained, and to help business people identify the key researcher who is best placed to address their proposal.