Louise O'Reilly
Question:7. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the funding and grants available for companies developing disruptive technologies. [12372/21]
View answerThursday, 4 March 2021
Questions (7)
Written answers
The Government provides a range of programmes, principally through my Department and its agencies, to support companies in the area of technological development. A number of EU programmes also exist to support companies and researchers to develop new products, processes and services. These programmes are documented by Knowledge Transfer Ireland and on the websites of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. In terms of "disruptive technologies", the main government funding is through the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF).
The DTIF is a €500 million fund established as part of the National Development Plan under Project Ireland 2040. It is administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of my Department.
The Fund is available for collaborative projects seeking investment in the development and deployment of disruptive innovative technologies and applications, on a commercial basis, targeted at tackling national and global challenges. It is aimed at driving collaboration on industrial research projects between our world class research base and industry, as well as facilitating enterprises to compete directly for funding in support of the development and adoption of these technologies and seeding a new wave of start-ups.
A particular focus of the Fund is to encourage research, development and innovation collaboration between enterprises located in Ireland, working with one or more Research Performing Organisations (RPOs), including third-level institutions such as universities and Institutes of Technology / Technological Universities.
Under Calls 2 and 3 of the DTIF, collaborations were required to have at least three project partners, one of which must be a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) and at least one other enterprise – either an SME or a large enterprise. Large-scale projects seeking DTIF funding of at least €1.5 million were eligible.
Funding allocations have been announced under two Calls to date, with a total of €140m allocated to 43 projects. Applications received under the third Call, which was launched in September 2020, are currently being evaluated by panels of international expert evaluators, with awards expected to be made by the end of March 2021.