Vol. 538 No. 3
112 Mr. Perry asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the allocation of funds which is granted to EUREKA; the number of projects which have been funded; the main beneficiaries of the actions of EUREKA; and the actions which have been taken to promote EUREKA with higher priority at political level. [18045/01]
EUREKA is a Europe-wide network promoting market-driven research and development in fields of advanced technology. Its aim is to strengthen the productivity and worldwide competitiveness of European companies by promoting cross-Border co-operation in R&D of products, processes and services aiming at the world market. Each member state contributes annually to EUREKA's secretariat costs. This contribution is linked to the state's GDP and in Ireland's case this amounted to 23,629 this year. The network does not contribute financially to the research costs of participants, who can, if necessary, seek financial support towards their costs from their respective Governments.
In Ireland's case, companies wishing to obtain financial support to finance their involvement in a EUREKA project can apply for assistance under the research, technology and innovation initiative operated by the industrial development agencies as part of the national development plan. To encourage more companies to enjoy the benefits of collaborating in EUREKA projects, research proposals involving collaboration recently became eligible for increased grant levels. In the past five years 11 Irish participants in EUREKA projects have been funded under the aforementioned R&D scheme. The only Irish beneficiaries of funding for EUREKA actions are Irish-based manufacturing and internationally-traded service companies.
