Irish business must exploit attractive State incentives to catch up in the innovation stakes, writes Mary Cryan
Just a decade ago the complaint of the science community was that successive governments did not do enough to encourage innovation. Now we must begin to question whether the private sector is moving fast enough to exploit what has been a major change in Government attitude.
The recent Budget contained further evidence of how dramatically the Government approach has changed in the area of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy. A further €36.5 million brings investment in the STI programme to almost €300 million. Current spending on research and development rises to €133 million, including an additional €12 million for higher education research. There is a mechanism to enhance further the R&D tax credit at a cost of €60 million.
No longer can scientists complain about Government inaction. Just one more set of figures further emphasises the point: total gross expenditure (public and private sector) on research and development has risen from just over €800 million in 2000 to an estimated €2.3 billion in 2006. As Brian Cowen pointed out last week, while the Government has contributed very significantly to this increase, private sector investment has also grown from under €500 million in 2000 to over €1.6 billion in 2006.
Government support is there and the private sector has increased its investment. But business needs to move faster to capitalise on the increased supports, the growing number of highly talented PhDs and the new pro-research attitude within Government.
The transformation has been dramatic. Just a decade ago, the science community was justified in calling for more government attention - and money - to be devoted to developing a science, technology and innovation culture in Ireland. Now, recent Forfás figures show Ireland has reached the EU average spend on higher education R&D as a proportion of GNP. Spending on research in third-level institutions trebled in the decade to 2006. Of course the Government's ambition does not rest with achieving the EU average, and there are ambitious targets under the National Development Plan to continue to increase R&D spending to 2013.
Thanks to this transformation of the funding situation, the stakeholders within the science community - whose view is represented to Government by the Advisory Science Council - are now able to focus on non-monetary issues that need to be addressed if Ireland is to become a leader in the area of R&D. And while continued funding increases and targeted incentives are very important, we must also ensure we are getting value from this increased commitment.
It is not simply up to Government to develop the STI culture in Ireland; the private sector must improve its performance too. Thanks to increased investment in education, Ireland plans to double its output of PhDs by 2013. But when we have them, we must use them. Industry must improve the quality and quantity of research in Ireland. Quite simply, businesses in Ireland must use this cadre of highly qualified people being supplied to them through State investment. The Advisory Science Council has identified this as an important issue. A taskforce is working on a report on how industry must adapt to ensure it can absorb these highly qualified people and exploit their skills.
As more PhDs emerge and as more researchers become available, we must ensure there are opportunities there to allow these people flourish and develop their skills. Funding for research has indeed grown rapidly. Now we must ensure this research is carried out on important and relevant issues and is carried out by those with the appropriate skills. Researchers must see attractive career opportunities in the private sector as well as in universities.
The latest European Innovation Scoreboard places Ireland in a second tier of countries regarding innovation performance, classed as "followers". This group is behind the leading group of innovation "leaders", but ahead of those groups classed as "catching up or trailing". Clearly much work remains to be done if Irish businesses are to reap fully the benefits of R&D and other innovation investment, and place Ireland at the forefront of generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress.
More detailed evidence from the most recent Community Innovation Survey confirms this mixed but developing innovation performance in the business sector. Although Irish firms are highly active in innovation activities, their rate of investment in these key activities including R&D remains relatively low, as does the associated impact and return on future turnover from these innovations.
Research is of limited use if its results end up on a shelf, or end up being exploited elsewhere. Great strides have been made in investment in higher education; now we need to ensure we can exploit the research results that come from that investment. Our highly qualified scientists must develop business as well as scientific skills in order to make their scientific expertise commercially viable.
The science community spent many frustrating years seeking increased government commitment to and investment in science. The Budget has shown again that that commitment is there. We, and the private sector, must respond.
• Mary Cryanis chairwoman of the Advisory Science Council