Cuts in the budgets for research work could threaten the smart economy, writes DICK AHLSTROM

DOUBTS ABOUT the consistency of funding in support of scientific research here continues to be a talking point for policy makers. Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan, for one, wonders whether some people in Government just don’t understand what the current science policy is trying to achieve.

He commented on the smart economy and what it could deliver in terms of jobs and national wealth after opening the Enterprise Ireland applied research forum in Dublin last Wednesday.

His concern is that the public – taxpayers – “don’t get” the connection between investment in research and the subsequent delivery of jobs. Worse still, he suggests some officials in the Department of Finance don’t get the connection either.

The department is under constant pressure from ministers as planning for the 2011 Budget progresses. All will seek to limit if not avoid cuts as the Government continues to address the ongoing financial difficulties.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe will have to lead that charge for the science community. It is a daunting challenge, however, as Finance ponders whether to direct limited funds towards hospital beds, primary school buildings or sometimes obscure scientific research.

Lenihan said it was up to Government to sell the benefits of a smart economy given this was central to its own policy and linked to the very sector meant to hasten our exit from recession.

He questions, however, whether the message is reaching hearts and minds. This is despite growing evidence of the connection between the volume of quality research undertaken here and the value of incoming high-tech foreign direct investment.

About 40 per cent of multinational projects sourced by IDA Ireland last year were research-driven enterprises and these have brought €500 million in investments. All comment on the ready access to world class researchers here as an incentive to set up in Ireland.

Mr Lenihan is arguing for steady, sustained Government investment made along an “upward trajectory”. There can be no “start/stop” to the funding.

The funders such as Enterprise Ireland, the hosts of last Wednesday’s event, must struggle on with budgets that are under pressure.

Enterprise Ireland (EI) works at a junction where scientists with a discovery seek to turn it into a commercial enterprise, explains executive director Feargal Ó Móráin.

He used the applied research event to announce that a funding round in support of this activity through its commercialisation fund would open in mid-July. This is about four months behind schedule because of uncertainties about later Government support for EI’s activities. Funding typically is for more than one year. Thus each project added to EI’s programme represented an ongoing financial commitment, Mr Ó Móráin explained.

For this reason, EI is prioritising the commercialisation fund programme given these scientists and the companies they form are the embodiment of the smart economy. “We are prioritising this over other areas because it is a vital piece of the pipeline.”

The pipeline to which he refers is the flow of research discoveries brought forward in the hopes of bringing them to market. It is essential that EI has the funds to bring these companies to life and, in so doing, deliver the smart economy.

“Without funding, the system slows considerably because researchers need access to funding at the end of the pipeline. That is why the commercialisation fund is an essential part of the jigsaw,” Mr Ó Móráin said. “If the funding for commercialisation dries up, the pipeline will dry up.”

He believes a gradual reduction in budgets for funders such as EI and Science Foundation Ireland would threaten the smart economy. “It would have an impact on spin-outs from the universities, which is why we are prioritising this over other programmes.” The commercialisation fund does not require elaborate science, just science that has realistic commercial potential. “If it can’t produce a [peer reviewed research] paper, fine, we don’t care,” Mr Ó Móráin said.

The second annual applied research forum was important for another reason, he believes. “We want to make it more respectable, more valued to do applied research. We want to give public acknowledgement of the importance of applied research.”