Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 June 2016
45. Deputy James Lawless asked the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation when he will provide funding to scientists engaged in basic research following the publication of Innovation 2020; the provisional deadline for applications in 2016; the scientific disciplines he will accommodate; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15842/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe question relates to specific funding available for research under Innovation 2020. The strategy has a number of admirable components but is short on specifics, so the question to the Minister-----
Sorry, is this Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív's question?
No, it is Question No. 45.
It is Question No. 45, in my name.
I will take it.
I have given the introduction to it.
Whoever takes Question No. 45, the introduction has been done.
Whichever one of the Ministers is most equipped can reply.
Deputy Halligan is the expert.
Or all together.
Or all together. As long as I get an answer, I do not mind who gives it.
My Department provides Science Foundation Ireland with its annual budget and SFI, in turn, invests in academic research and research teams. The funding generates new knowledge, leading-edge technologies and competitive enterprises in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. SFI provides funding across a range of "oriented basic research" through to "applied research". To answer the Deputy's question, SFI estimates that more than 80% of its portfolio of active research awards is for oriented basic research which takes place before the point of any type of commercialisation. This is the case even though SFI's remit was extended in 2013 to enable it also to fund applied research.
SFI's research funding is allocated in accordance with Government policy whereby the majority of competitive funding of research is allocated to 14 priority areas and the platform science and technology that underpin these areas. However, it is important to make clear that research prioritisation has not impacted on funding of oriented basic research by Science Foundation Ireland or my Department.
I thank the Minister and note his support for Science Foundation Ireland, a Fianna Fáil initiative and a very successful one.
The question remains unanswered, unless I misunderstood something in the answer. We are attempting to attract researchers and scientists and people of such professions into industry and into the country to begin their programmes. Without the specific funding targets and funding dates, these people cannot be brought in. The culture does not exist to attract them. This is an industry that by its very nature is very dependent on human capital, human resources, people and their families. They are highly mobile and we want them to relocate into this jurisdiction. In order to do that, we must tell them by what dates they must apply, when they will find out about their application, for how long they will be engaged, whether it is a multi-annual programme and where they stand. While I agree with the Minister of State's comments on the sector and how important it is - that is taken as a given - I have not yet heard a date or an implementation programme. When will the grants and the research be announced, by when must applicants apply and how does that happen? These are the real, hard figures and facts that we need for this to move forward.
SFI's budget of €167 million in 2016 is already allocated. To break this down, and to respond to the Deputy's question, based on information from higher education research and development, HERD, 50.9% of expenditure this year in the higher education system on research is on basic research and the rest is divided between applied research at 43.4% and experimental research at 5.7%.
Innovation 2020 set a delivery date for 2017. If the Deputy is asking me the provisional deadline for applications in 2016, I do not have that deadline here but I most certainly will revert to the Deputy in that regard. What I can tell him is that there are 14 research priority areas, RPAs, which can be found on the website and which include networks and communications, data analytics, management, digital platforms, medical devices, diagnostics, food for health, therapeutics, marine renewable energy, smart grids and smart cities and so on. My plan is to meet with Science Foundation Ireland within the next few weeks, and the Deputy would be very welcome to come to that meeting with me.
I thank the Minister for his invite and I will take up that offer to join him at his meeting with Science Foundation Ireland. I would also be interested in the 14 RPAs. The Minister of State ran out of time while reading out the priorities, but I would be interested in getting that document from him at another stage.
I will get that to the Deputy.
Very good. I thank the Minister of State for that final clarification but we are approaching the end of the academic term and it is the summer months when people will be making decisions about where they position themselves into the new academic research year. It is therefore imperative that over the next three to four weeks we begin to make movement. If we can indicate to these people over the summer what is happening, then they can begin to make plans and we can attract the right people to the right research.
The Deputy's question is very relevant, and I will be very brief in my answer. As I indicated earlier, I contacted Science Foundation Ireland and asked them to meet me within a few weeks so that we can discuss the priorities, the provisional deadline and so on. As I said, any Deputy in the House who is interested in the sciences, research and development and so on will be welcome to come to that meeting. Until I have that meeting there are some questions that I cannot answer, but when I do meet them, I will extend an invitation to the Deputy to come to that meeting with me, and I would be delighted if he would take up that invitation.
