Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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299. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of applications made under the disruptive technologies innovation fund to date, by county, in tabular form; the number of successful and unsuccessful project applications for funding; the details of each successful project by county that has been approved for funding; the value of funding approved for each such project; when successful applicants will receive funding in 2019; the amount allocated to the fund in 2019; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52829/18]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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300. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the annual breakdown in funding allocated in each of the years 2019 to 2021, in tabular form, following the confirmation that €75 million in funding has been approved for successful projects to 2021 under the first tranche of the disruptive technologies innovation fund; and when the second tranche will open for applications in 2019. [52830/18]

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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301. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the details of the requirement for projects to have matching funding under the disruptive technologies innovation fund. [52831/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 299 to 301, inclusive, together.

My Department launched the first call of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund on 29 June 2018 and Expressions of Interest were sought by the deadline of 3pm on Friday, 17 August 2018. Information on the Fund and how to apply was provided by my Department with the support of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland. Expressions of Interest were sought for funding commencing in 2019.

My Department received 307 Expressions of Interest for this Call for funding. However, 6 Expressions of Interest were received after the deadline and as such were deemed ineligible. Decisions on the 301 remaining Expressions of Interest received were made in September 2018 and were communicated to the lead partners of all consortia. Only those applications that met all of the eligibility criteria and met the minimum threshold of the selection criteria were invited to submit a full application. However, this does not prohibit those applicants from applying for funding in future calls under the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF).

In total, 45 consortia were invited to submit a full application to be received by 12.00 noon on 5th November. 44 consortia submitted applications ahead of this deadline. One application was received after the deadline of 12 noon on 5 November 2018 and that application was deemed ineligible.

From early November 2018, a panel of international experts has assessed the 44 detailed applications and interviewed each consortium that submitted a valid application. On completion of this evaluation, 27 projects were deemed to have met the minimum threshold of the selection criteria. The remaining 17 applications were deemed to have failed at least one of the selection criteria and as such were deemed ineligible to progress to funding.

In summary, 301 valid Expressions of Interest were received of which 45 were invited to full application. 44 valid applications were received of which 27 have been deemed fundable following assessment by a panel of international experts. All 27 fundable projects have been approved in principle for funding.

Enterprise Ireland is supporting my Department in the administration and post-award management of the projects being funded. In line with standard practice in Enterprise Ireland, the 27 approved projects will be subject to further scrutiny and detailed grant conditions will be communicated by Enterprise Ireland in formal “letters of offer”. It is anticipated that the earliest letters of offer would issue early in 2019.

In terms of Exchequer funding available, there is €20m available in 2019, €30m in 2020, €40m in 2021 and €90m in 2022 (i.e., a total of €180m between 2019 and 2022). The first tranche of 27 projects announced in December 2018 involve a maximum exchequer commitment of €78m. This assumes that each project proceeds as planned and that the required enterprise co-funding is put in place. Enterprise partners in each consortium will claim DTIF funding retrospectively following certification by Enterprise Ireland of work completed.

In terms of co-funding, the following were the requirements set down for the first Call:

- Enterprise partners in a consortium can be funded to max of 50% of their costs from the DTIF;

- Research Performing Organisations (RPOs – including universities and colleges) can be funded up to 100% of their costs;

- RPOs cannot account for more than two-thirds of the DTIF (exchequer) funding in any project.

Public bodies (other than eligible RPOs) are also allowed to participate as part of a consortium but are required to be self-financed for this first call under the DTIF and as such will not receive funding.

In terms of county location, my Department received over 300 Expressions of Interest with multiple partners ranging from 2 to 15 partners and for most of the 27 successful projects, partners within each consortium are based in different locations across the country. No regional criteria were included in the first Call and no regional analysis has been undertaken or is available from the Expressions of Interest received. The table below shows the 27 fundable projects and the locations of the enterprise partners in each consortium. This is the only regional analysis available at this point.

Table 1: Projects Approved for Funding and Enterprise Locations

Projects approved for €5 to 10 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021:

Projects approved for €3 to 5 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021:

Projects approved for €1 to 3 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021: