Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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31. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he has adopted recommendations by the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service in its spending review on the disruptive technologies innovation fund published in November 2020 making particular reference to the recommendations to closely monitor the progress of projects during and after funding is completed and the recording of outputs upon completion; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60715/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Government established the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) in 2018 as one of four National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2027 Funds under Project Ireland 2040. It is aimed at encouraging collaboration and innovation in the development and deployment of disruptive technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my Department and administered by Enterprise Ireland.

DTIF focuses on the ability of Irish SMEs to drive disruptive innovation through collaboration on research between enterprise and research institutions. The Fund is open to partnerships working on projects that have the potential to significantly alter markets or the way businesses operate.

In November 2020 the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES) published a Spending Review of the Fund, which was a comprehensive evaluation of the Fund aimed at systematically assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of DTIF and ensuring that the Fund remains in alignment with its policy objectives. The review acknowledged a strong rationale for a publicly funded programme making significant investments in disruptive technologies which are high-risk, high-return. It found that the programme is working towards achieving its stated objectives, including maintaining a focus on collaboration and building on publicly-funded research.

The five recommendations in the Spending Review were aimed at ensuring that the Fund was clear in its focus, targeted correctly and monitored appropriately. The recommendations are all either addressed or underway. I launched the fourth call of the Fund last month and it continues to focus on the potential for SMEs to drive disruptive innovation. A fifth call, which will adopt a theme-based approach, is currently under development.

The Review recommended closely monitoring the progress of projects and set out a proposed framework – a Programme Logic Model (PLM) – for measuring the impact of the DTIF in the years ahead particularly as the first projects come to fruition from mid-2022. This PLM maps out the logical steps and associated key performance indicators (KPIs) in terms of the inputs, activities, outputs and final outcomes and impacts which emerge through the implementation of a programme.

The Spending Review also made a recommendation for a review examining the processes of the Fund. This review, which is currently underway and is now due for completion in February 2022, will provide feedback on participants’ experiences of DTIF to date and will set out in more detail the processes required to embed and operationalise the aforementioned PLM to ensure that it aligns with existing reporting mechanisms and avoids unnecessary duplication. On completion of the review, we expect that any additional recommendations arising from the review, with regard to measuring the impact of the programme, will be in place before the first projects are completed in mid-2022.

My Department will continue to monitor the operation of the Fund to ensure that it continues to meet its objectives and the needs of its stakeholders.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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32. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the total number of experts used in each of the calls for the disruptive technologies innovation fund; the total number of experts the European Commission's database of experts; the total number of non-Irish or Irish resident experts from outside the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60716/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) was established in 2018 to encourage collaboration in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is managed by my Department with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland.

DTIF focuses on the ability of Irish enterprises to drive disruptive innovation through collaboration on industrial research with other enterprises and research institutions. The Fund is open to partnerships working on projects that have the potential to significantly alter markets or the way businesses operate. It encourages private co-investment by lowering the risk profile associated with investment in high-risk, high-reward innovations.

Enterprise Ireland administers the selection process with oversight by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. DTIF is a competitive offer and eligible applications are evaluated by independent international technical and commercialisation experts using call-specific selection criteria.

Enterprise Ireland maintains an Expert Database from which it selects appropriate evaluation experts to evaluate applications on the basis of the call-specific selection criteria, professional expertise and experience. As a public research funding body, the agency regularly sources new evaluation experts, including from the European Commission's database of experts, for its research programmes. Factors which are considered in the selection of evaluation experts include geographical and sector balance, gender balance, regular rotation, and conflict of interest. All evaluation experts used in DTIF calls to date are resident outside the state.

Each eligible DTIF application is assigned to an evaluation panel of three evaluators for remote evaluation. At interview stage, a senior official from Enterprise Ireland chairs the interview between the same evaluation panel and the project partners.

The total number of experts used in each of the calls for the Fund is set out in the table below:

The European Commission's database of experts is updated regularly and Information on the total number of experts on the database for each call is not available.