Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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622. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if specific research and development programmes will be introduced to assist companies to develop new products with specific reference to companies that are at present heavily reliant on the British market; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3174/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Companies that invest in innovation have been shown to be higher performers in terms of employment and export sales and more sustainable through recessionary and other economic shocks such as those posed by Brexit.

Ireland’s economic sustainability requires our companies to make products and services that are more novel than their competitors, better performing, more efficiently delivered, and cost effective for their customers. In this way Irish exports to global markets can be maintained and increased despite challenges in any one individual market.

One of the key implications of the Brexit vote is that Irish firms will need to find new international markets. Research Development and Innovation (RDI) capabilities and activity will create the greatest competitive advantage for Irish firms and Enterprise Ireland is ready to work with companies commencing RDI activities for the first time or increasing their existing levels of innovation or ready to collaborate with others to achieve step changes in capabilities that could never be achieved alone.

Enterprise Ireland currently helps companies to innovate and develop new products and services in two main ways:

1. In-Company Research, Development & Innovation Support

This comprises of direct supports for R&D activity within Irish firms, and supports for companies to build R&D capability and acquire new technology through licensing.  This activity is an important element in supporting companies to bring new products to market and to drive down costs through product and process innovation. This funding supports projects which have the potential to develop novel products and services with a clear competitive advantage in their target market thus enabling companies to increase employment through sustainable and substantially increased sales.

In light of the need for SMEs to engage in more RDI and to make increasingly nimble strategic shifts Enterprise Ireland’s in-company RDI supports are being refined so as to be even more responsive to company needs. For example, Enterprise Ireland recently started supporting ‘Business Innovation’ projects which allow for the development & implementation of new services delivery, production methods and substantive changes to the business model of a company.

2. Collaboration with the Higher Education Sector & with International Partners

In order for Irish businesses to remain sustainable and competitive, they need to be constantly reviewing their levels of innovation to ensure that their products and processes are leading edge.  The barriers to this happening include:

the potential high costs of R&D

the associated risk of undertaking R&D

low capability in businesses to undertake R&D in-house

access to, and affordability of capital equipment 

Enterprise Ireland operates a range of collaboration supports to help companies mitigate these issues by supporting them to engage with higher level researchers to undertake collaborative research for the benefit of the company. In this way Enterprise Ireland helps to unlock the skills and expertise of higher level research so that companies can access solutions to their challenges that are beyond their current capabilities and thus improve their economic competitiveness. Enterprise Ireland also helps companies to identify leading edge international partners and researchers and to secure valuable sources of non-exchequer RDI funding such as Horizon 2020 (over €150M secured for Irish companies and academic each year) and the European Space Agency (around €10M in RDI related contracts to Irish companies each year).

On January 9th of this year, Enterprise Ireland published its 2017-2020 Strategy – Build Scale, Expand Reach. The strategy builds on the success of recent years and sets new, ambitious targets for export growth and jobs.

In terms of research, development and innovation, key priorities for Enterprise Ireland over this period will include: 

Driving innovation in Irish enterprise to unprecedented levels through new supports to reach the target of €1.25bn in R&D expenditure per annum by 2020.

Increasing connections between its client companies and the international innovation ecosystem

Increasing access to Irish public sector procurement opportunities through the Small Business Research Innovation Fund (SBIR) as a means of validating innovative products/services with international application potential

Implementing a new Innovation Toolkit to support identification of innovation opportunities by its client companies

Driving greater connectivity between investment and technology networks to transfer knowledge, skills and Intellectual Property (IP)

Showcasing client innovation capabilities to inspire more innovation investment.