The Government today published Innovation 2020, a five-year strategy for research and development, science and technology.
The strategy is aimed at building on the significant successes delivered by the Government’s science strategy over the past decade, which has seen Ireland dramatically improve its performance globally in this area. The next phase of the strategy is aimed at building on existing infrastructures and achieving ambitious private-public collaborations.
A key element of the strategy is to increase total investment in research and development in Ireland, led by the private sector, to 2.5% of gross national product. On current official projections, this would mean that over €5 billion will be invested per year for five years in R&D by the private and public sectors by 2020 – an almost doubling of current levels of investment.
Among the targets to be delivered by the strategy are an increase in the number of researchers personnel working in enterprise by 60% to 40,000; a 30% increase in PhD enrolments to 2,250; a 40% increase in the share of PhD researchers transferring from Science Foundation Ireland research teams to industry; application for full membership of ELIXIR (European Life-Sciences Infrastructure for Biological Information), and exploring membership options for CERN and European Southern Observatory.
Other measures outlined in the strategy include the expansion of network of research Centres; a successor to the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions and the drawing down of €1.25 billion in funding under the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020.
A new Programme of Funding for Frontier Research will be introduced, along with a challenge-centric approach to research designed to bring together enterprise, higher education institutions and public sector to identify and addres national challenges
A horizon-scanning exercise will be undertaken to identify areas of strategic commercial opportunity for Irish-based enterprises. This process will feed into the next research prioritisation exercise in 2018 and a series of structures will be put in place to benchmark Ireland’s performance in these areas against other comparable economies.
Launching the strategy, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “Innovation 2020 is a key element in our plan to keep the recovery going by helping to create new jobs and new opportunities for research. It sets out a vision in which Ireland would become a Global Innovation Leader, with research, development, science and technology all contributing to this goal. Our reputation for research excellence has been a major catalyst in our success in attracting and maintaining foreign direct investment, and this strategy demonstrates that we remain strongly committed to maintaining and improving standards in the excellence of our research.”
Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland Prof Mark Ferguson said: “Innovation 2020 builds on the considerable past successes and outlines some ambitious new plans such as challenge based funding. Science, innovation and technology are driving rapid global changes and the world is becoming more competitive. Ireland needs to continue to push forward: be the creators and owners of new ideas and innovations, upskill our people, strengthen and future proof our economy and society. Implementation of Innovation 2020 will allow us to do that: excellence, talent and impact.”
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