Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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78. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide an update on any upcoming strategies for science, technology and innovation; the priorities in these strategies; and the moneys that will be made available for them. [12203/15]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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A successor to the Strategy for Science, Technology & Innovation (SSTI) 2006 – 2013 is being formulated and will provide the framework for the strategic direction to enable the delivery and support of effective research that produces outputs of maximum impact for Ireland's economy and society. Resource constraints and the economic downturn nationally and globally meant that, de facto, in recent years policy has been focused mainly around five core strategic policies:

- Prioritisation of public funds into areas of research that offer most potential for economic recovery and social progress;

- Consolidation of resources in units of scale with scientific excellence,

- Increased collaboration between academia and industry; and between academic and research performing institutions;

- International collaboration, to maximise return on investment and to optimise success under EU Framework programmes; and

- Facilitating the translation of knowledge and the transfer of technology into jobs.

There is now an opportunity for Ireland to develop a new whole-of-Government strategy for research and innovation that will build on the progress made to date in developing Ireland's research and innovation system, as well as addressing identified challenges. An Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation - which includes members from key Government Departments and the HEA as well as the Chief Scientific Adviser - is working towards formulating the new Strategy.

The new Strategy will seek to, inter alia:

- recommit to targets around levels of public and private investment in Science, Technology & Innovation in the years ahead;

- embed Research Prioritisation as a key policy objective to ensure a continued focus on public funding of research in areas of economic relevance to enterprise;

- maintain and build further the capacity and capability of people in academia and in enterprise through the acquisition and transfer of knowledge and in doing so, support excellent and impactful research across the full continuum from basic to applied as well as commercialisation of research;

- maintain and build further relevant infrastructures across all the sciences but in particular in areas of economic relevance to the enterprise base to address the jobs crisis;

- build on consolidation of the system by further enhancing its coherence and its accessibility to enterprise and society.

The views of our stakeholder community in the development of our new Strategy are very important. In this context, a consultation process is underway, and the submissions received will be considered in detail in its formulation.