Dáil Éireann Debate, Friday - 16 September 2016
1889. Deputy Brendan Ryan asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if she will provide a breakdown of the €119.43 million provided to Enterprise Ireland in 2015 for direct and indirect research, development and innovation supports and commercialisation of State-funded research; the project and description of which the funding was used for; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25992/16]
View answerEnterprise Ireland operates a range of supports to help companies mitigate these issues, and many others, by supporting them with in-company R&D funding and helping them to engage with higher level researchers to undertake collaborative research for the benefit of the company.
The €119.43M funding for Enterprise Ireland’s innovation programmes provide direct and indirect research development and innovation supports for indigenous companies, equity funding for new start-ups and supports the commercialisation of State funded research. Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation budget is spent under three main Activity Areas:
Activity 1 – Transforming R&D Activity in Enterprise: €48.8M .
This comprises direct supports for R&D activity within Irish firms, and supports for companies to build R&D capability and acquire new technology through licensing. This activity is an important element in supporting companies to bring new products to market and to drive down costs through product and process innovation. In–company R&D support amounted to €17.7M in 2015 supporting 86 new company projects where the project scale was over €100k.
In addition to in-company R&D support €31M of equity investments were made in 105 Innovative High Potential Start-ups (HPSUs). HPSUs are companies that, in the view of Enterprise Ireland, can develop innovative technologies, products and services for sale on world markets. Encouraging the establishment and supporting the development of innovation-led HPSUs with a strong export focus is a key priority for Enterprise Ireland and is fundamental to building the next generation of world class Irish companies.
Enterprise Ireland established the Innovative HPSU Fund to support the start-up and development costs of High Potential Start-Up companies. The Innovative HPSU Fund allows Enterprise Ireland to offer equity investment to HPSU clients, on a co-funded basis. This investment goes towards the achievement of an overall business plan, rather than towards discrete elements of a business plan, such as R&D or employment creation. The funding of a business plan in this way is similar to a venture capital (VC) approach. HPSUs that receive investment from the Innovative HPSU Fund are developing and commercialising new or substantially improved technologies, products, processes or service offerings when compared to industry players in the European and global marketplace.
Activity 2 – Industry Collaboration with the Third Level Sector: €40.4M comprises programmes to increase the level of collaborative R&D activity between industry and academia.
As a first step companies can avail of €5,000 Innovation Vouchers (€4.8M in 2015) which are designed to build links between Ireland's public knowledge providers and small businesses and are helping to create a cultural shift in the small business community's approach to innovation. A recent independent evaluation of the Innovation Voucher scheme found that for every €1 invested in this scheme company turnover increased by over €7. As such, the Innovation Vouchers programme is a cost effective solution to the challenge of encouraging SME businesses to engage in collaborative research with universities and Institutes of Technology. Over 500 such projects are completed each year for industry.
Innovation Partnerships (€10M in 2015) offer financial support to companies who engage in collaborative research projects with Irish universities and institutes of technology with Enterprise Ireland providing grants of up to 80% towards eligible costs of the research project. As a result the Innovation Partnership Initiative helps industry to engage in collaborative research projects with Irish universities and Institutes of Technology to develop new products and services. A recent independent evaluation of the Innovation Partnership programme found that for every €1 invested in this scheme company turnover increased by over €6.69. 70 such projects are completed each year for industry.
Larger collaborative research projects involving groups of companies are also actively supported. The Enterprise Ireland/IDA Ireland Technology Centre initiative (€14.1M in 2015) allows industry groups to set a commercially valuable research agenda which academics in the higher education sector will deliver on. This programme is Ireland’s largest initiative to support industry-led research, development and innovation. These Centres focus on identifying new sources of industrial growth and job creation and achieving competitive advantage for industry in Ireland by accessing and leveraging the innovative capacity of the Irish research community. 415 companies already benefit in such areas as services and business processes; ICT; manufacturing and materials; energy, sustainable food and health and medical technologies while hundreds of other companies are benefiting from the know-how and capabilities of these centres every year. A recent independent interim evaluation of the Technology Centre programme found that for every €1 invested in this scheme company turnover increased by over €2 after only 3-4 years of these centre’s operation. This return is expected to increase greatly as the centres continue to mature and more commercially relevant know-how and technology flows to industry partners.
Enterprise Ireland also funds small industry facing “Technology Gateways” (€3.5M in 2015) in Institutes of Technology, aimed at providing technology solutions for companies in a particular sector and, where possible, within a region. The Technology Gateway Programme was established by Enterprise Ireland to provide Business Development resources to the Institutes of Technology to help them engage with industry on a local, regional and national basis and manage the ensuing research projects for industry. Around 500 industry projects a year are supported via this scheme.
New Frontiers (€4.4M in 2015) is Enterprise Ireland’s national entrepreneur development programme for innovative, early-stage start-ups. It is a three-phased programme, based in 14 campus incubation centres across the country. Each year, New Frontiers funds the development of up to 150 new entrepreneurs. It supports individuals who are capable of building sustainable new businesses, trading internationally, creating employment and generating revenue in their locality. In the region of 100 sustainable business are created each year via this initiative with 20-25 achieving High Potential Start-up status. More than 500 jobs will be created by each year’s cohort of companies.
Funding is also available to drive International Collaboration (€3.5M in 2015) which supports and enables innovative researchers to engage with international research groups and to access funding from the almost €80B Horizon 2020 European research funding programme. Irish academics and companies are awarded around €150M in research funding per annum from this important source of non-exchequer funding.
Activity 3 – Realising the Commercial Potential of Ireland’s Research Community: €30.1M in 2015)
These programmes accelerate the commercialisation of the over €600M+ worth of higher level research undertaken in the state each year and includes the Commercialisation Fund (€24M in 2015) which supports researchers to take the outputs of research with commercial potential to a point where they can be transferred into industry or form the basis of a new start-up company, the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (€3.8M) which funds dedicated staff within the Universities to ensure that best use is made of research outputs with commercial potential, and the Campus Incubator Scheme (€2.1M) which provides space for spin out & spin-in companies (At present there are over 400 companies in Enterprise Ireland funded incubation centres and these companies employ nearly 1700 people.) These activities deliver around 60 commercialisation projects in Academia, the creation of over 30 high technology disruptive spinout companies and the transfer of over 150 commercially valuable technologies to industry per annum.
