Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
329. Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation her views on a matter (details supplied) raised in the National Competitiveness Council report, Ireland’s Competitiveness Challenge 2017 on research, development and innovation. [4046/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraA critical international measure of innovative activity is ‘R&D intensity’ (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP). Global Innovation leaders all have high intensity rates such as Finland (3.18%), Denmark (2.98%) and Israel (4.29%). The UK has a rate of 1.68% of GDP. Ireland, meanwhile, has a rate of 1.51% of GDP. As a result, it is very clear that companies in Ireland are not spending enough on innovation to ensure growth and insulation from future economic shocks.
Just over two thirds (68%) of Enterprise Ireland clients who responded to the Annual Business Review (ABR) Survey are RDI (Research, Development and Innovation) performing clients. However, this percentage needs to increase, and clients need to invest more in this area. As such, Enterprise Ireland continues to aggressively support Research Development and Innovation in all client companies.
One of the key pillars of Enterprise Ireland’s Strategy 2017-2020 is to ‘Place Innovation at Centre Stage’. This will help increase the level of innovation among client companies, increase connections between clients and the international innovation ecosystem and encourage more client company investment in R&D to help reach a target of €1.25 billion per annum by 2020.
For Irish businesses to remain sustainable and competitive, they need to ensure that their products and processes are leading edge. Enterprise Ireland works with companies to help them to innovate new products, processes and services by supporting them to do in-company RDI, helping them to access international sources of funding and expertise and to collaborate with each other and the higher education system.
EI’s own analysis shows that companies that are RDI active are higher performing in terms of employment, export sales and are more sustainable through recessionary and other economic shocks such as Brexit.
EI’s actions to drive innovation within its client base include:
1. Helping companies increase their investment in RDI (target is an increase of 50% by 2020) with the introduction of a new innovation toolkit which will include:
- the redefining of EI’s RDI offer;
- aligning EI innovation supports to in-house company needs which will include redeveloping financial offers and advocacy;
- continued support for process and business/organization innovation;
- driving healthcare innovation by enabling enhanced access to companies in Ireland through the National Healthcare Innovation Hub;
- support to provide multinational sub supply and partnering opportunities for SMEs;
- increase focus on assisting young Irish disruptive technology companies to access the significant EU Horizon 2020 SME instrument;
- support to enable Irish companies to access funding support and contracts from Horizon 2020 and the European Space Agency;
- extension of the campus incubation facilities;
- access key talent - EI will help with finding, hiring, growing and reaching impactful innovative people, particularly through the Marie Curie Co-Fund.
2. Helping companies develop their internal innovation capabilities and capacities through training (i.e. Innovation 4 Growth programme and Excel at Innovation programme) and assistance with new key hires and access to innovation expertise and capabilities and abroad.
3. Enabling companies to tap into external sources of innovation – locally through EI Technology Centres, EI Technology Gateways and the wider Irish Research System, as well as internationally. The Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI) office in EI plays an important role in this regard as a connector and will enable a smoother interaction between industry and academia. KTIs new online ‘Find RDI Funding’ tool enables companies find easier access to fund their R&D projects. Through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), Ireland's national pre-procurement programme, EI facilitates and co-funds innovative solutions to specific public sector challenges and needs. SBIR Ireland’s aim is to drive innovation across all sections of the Irish Public Sector.
These enhanced activities, while serving to increase the diversity and scalability of clients will also serve to contribute to a key target in the Government’s Innovation 2020 Strategy, namely the doubling of business expenditure on R&D by 2020.
EI's innovation supports enable companies to develop new market opportunities and maximise their business performance. They provide a range of financial and non-financial supports to companies to drive innovative capability across the enterprise base. To ensure companies throughout Ireland are aware of, and can avail of, Enterprise Ireland innovation supports, the agency has:
- Launched a national media campaign, ‘Global Ambition’ , to drive awareness of the benefits of innovations via the use of real stories from real companies;
- Redesigned its R&D Fund. The new Agile Innovation Fund is more streamlined and responsive for companies, especially smaller companies;
- The agency’s new company-led diagnostics client engagement model permits Enterprise Ireland’s Development Advisors to direct companies to the most suitable innovation supports based on their business need, stage of development and global ambition.
Enterprise Ireland will continue to support companies with supports for innovation, competitiveness, management and financial capability to become more resilient in international markets and to compete with other economies as a location for investment.
In regard to innovation performance within FDI companies, today half of IDA Ireland clients invest in R&D and employ over 15,000 people directly in R&D. The challenge remains to increase the number of MNCs engaged in R&D activity in Ireland so that their activities move them up the value chain. At the end of the third year of IDA’s Strategy, 76 new companies had invested in R&D for the first time in Ireland.
In line with this, IDA Ireland’s strategy Winning FDI 2015-2019 outlines a plan to support clients in creating 80,000 new jobs and to win €3bn in new RDI investment projects, including in-house and collaborative RDI projects with companies and universities, and to encourage 120 additional companies across the FDI portfolio to engage in R&D for the first time.
Investment in R&D has the effect of anchoring FDI clients and securing sustainable employment and related benefits to the Irish economy. Half of IDA’s total grant-aid budget is allocated to RDI investments each year. This investment leverages RDI expenditure of €500 million by IDA clients for these approved investments and an overall annual spend by IDA clients of €1.65bn per annum on R&D.
IDA also have specific Research Development and Innovation Grants, which are open to all client companies planning or engaging in RD&I activities. These cover potential investments in research and development in areas such as:
- Manufacturing process development - application of combinations of science and technology tools (such as novel process analytical tools and new engineering solutions) to drive improvements in productivity/consistency where the company faces technical risk and uncertainty.
- New product development - application of combinations of science and technology (such as novel materials, novel code) to design, prototype and test new products where the company faces technical risk and uncertainty.
- Services innovation - application of science and technology (such as data analytics) to create new service offerings or radical re-engineer existing services where the company faces significant risk through technical risk and uncertainty.
