Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Innovation Voucher Programme is funded by my Department under the Science and Technology Programme, through Enterprise Ireland.

The Innovation Voucher Programme is designed to build links between Ireland's public knowledge providers (higher education institutions and research performing bodies) and small businesses and help to create a cultural shift in the small business community's approach to innovation. The vouchers encourage companies and public knowledge providers to work together on specific innovation questions and projects related to a company’s needs and is available to the broadest number of companies. The nature of these projects will be such that they transfer knowledge that is new, thereby enabling a company to use this newly acquired knowledge to innovate a product, production process or service.

As part of the Budget 2024 allocation to my Department, my officials, have been working in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland to review the Innovation Voucher Programme, including increasing the value of the vouchers from €5,000 up to €10,000. It is anticipated that this increase in the value of the voucher will be implemented in Q2 of this year.

The budget allocation for the Innovation Voucher programme for 2023 and 2024 is outlined in the table below.