Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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474. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the funding to be allocated to the disruptive technologies innovation fund over the lifetime of the National Development Plan 2018-2027; the amount allocated in each year over the 2018 to 2020 period to the fund; the funding allocated for approved projects in 2018 and 2019; and the amount issued in payments to date in tabular form. [3692/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, DTIF, is a €500 million National Development Plan fund established under Project Ireland 2040 which will run from 2018 to 2027. The fund forms a key part of the delivery of the pillar 1 goal of Future Jobs Ireland to embrace innovation and technological change. Funding is available for collaborative projects seeking investment in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies and applications, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges.

In February 2018, the Government committed an initial tranche of €180 million (of the total €500 million) to the DTIF, with funding to be allocated each year from 2019 to 2022, as follows: 

*Some funds will carry over from 2019 to 2020 based on sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The DTIF was launched in 2018 and under the first call, my Department received over 300 applications. Following a competitive selection process involving international experts, 27 successful projects were approved for funding in December 2018.  The second call in 2019 resulted in a further 16 projects approved for funding. All of these projects are collaborative with multiple partners including SMEs, large companies, multinationals and research performing organisations (RPOs) such as our colleges and universities. In total, 159 organisations are involved in these collaborative projects.

As each project funded is a multi-year project of up to three years, the capital allocated to projects to date is reflective of this. A total of €140 million has been allocated to 43 projects under the first two calls (27 projects with a commitment of €75 million under call 1 and 16 projects with a commitment of €65 million under call 2).

As of end February 2020, Enterprise Ireland, who administer the Fund on my behalf, had issued payments of just over €15.4 million to project partners. A number of additional payments are in train, awaiting documentation from project partners before the funds can be released. Payments relating to both call 1 and call 2 projects will continue to issue throughout 2020 and subsequent years.