Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 January 2014
111. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the extent of the role he expects science, innovation and technology to play in job creation in the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3500/14]
View answerThe importance of science, technology and innovation (STI) to Ireland is recognised by the Government as being crucial to growth in our indigenous and FDI sectors and plays a key role in job creation. The Government’s overarching aim is to accelerate both the economic and societal return on our public investment in STI. In this context, implementation of Research Prioritisation, underway since March 2012, will see the majority of public research funding aligned with 14 priority areas where we are most likely to get economic and societal returns, particularly in the form of jobs. Action Plans have been drawn up and approved by Government for each of the 14 Priority Areas and monitoring systems have been developed and approved by Government to measure the outputs and impact of funding provided.
Another key initiative is the adoption of the Intellectual Property Protocol, which outlines a clear, robust and industry friendly policy for the commercialisation of IP arising from state funded research. As result of this, the central Technology Transfer Office (cTTO) is being established. The aim of the cTTO is to encourage the commercialisation of IP arising from State funded research, with a view to achieving more job creation from our investment in this area.
Furthermore, the remit of Science Foundation Ireland has been expanded to cover applied research, aligned with the 14 priority areas to further support the development of research findings into commercial opportunities, further enhancing our job creation potential. In 2013 SFI had links to 41% (2,618) of 6,449 jobs (90 company announcements) announced by the IDA in all fields.
It was most encouraging to see that the European Commission’s Innovation Union Scoreboard, published in spring 2013, shows Ireland retaining its position among those EU Member States with above average performance in their research and innovation systems. Moreover, the European Commission ‘Indicator of Innovation Output’, announced in September 2013, shows Ireland, along with Sweden, Germany and Luxembourg as EU Member States getting the most out of innovation.
