50% increase in number of spin-outs from publicly-funded research as part of new Government plan

50% increase in number of spin-outs from publicly-funded research as part of new Government plan

Government sets new targets and measures for investment of core €500million Science and Technology budget

Richard Bruton T.D., Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation and Seán Sherlock TD., Minister for Research and Innovation today (Tuesday) announced that the Government has approved new metrics and targets to monitor the impact of state investment in Science, Technology and Innovation, in line with the National Research Prioritisation Exercise. The Government also approved the publication of individual Action Plans on each of 14 Priority Areas of research which show the greatest opportunity in terms of supporting jobs.

Ambitious targets at national and agency level include:

· Increase the share of publicly performed R&D financed by enterprise to €180m over 2013 to 2017 – an average of €36m per annum, from a baseline of €31.2 m in 2010;
· Increase the number of spin-out companies greater than 3 years old from 44 to 69 by 2017;
· Increase the number of firms engaged in R&D projects of significant scale by 115 firms by 2017, from 1070 companies in 2011 to 1185 companies in 2017;
· Increase, by 10%, the turnover due to new-to-firm or new-to-market product innovations from 9.3% to 10.3% by 2017;
· A further 1,100 researchers will be employed in the enterprise sector in addition to the circa 10,600 currently employed.

Minister Bruton said:

“A central plank of the Action Plan for Jobs is better using our research and innovation budget to drive job creation. Turning good ideas into good jobs is the key outcome that we need to see in the short term from our investment of scarce public funds in scientific research. These metrics and targets will help us to track that investment and the impact that it is having. We must make difficult decisions in order to achieve the outcomes we need from the money we invest in research, and I am convinced that today’s announcement represents a major step in helping to deliver the jobs and growth we need”.

Minister for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock TD added:

“These new measures and targets will be central to our strategy of ensuring that we are investing in areas of excellence and impact. Having just concluded lengthy negotiations with the European Parliament and the European Commission as Chairman of the EU Competitiveness Council, I am confident that Ireland will be in a position to target up to 1 billion euro in research and innovation funding under Horizon 2020 over the next seven years.

We need to set ambitious targets – nationally and at EU level – to ensure that we maximize the availability of productive, job creating funds. We know from our own enterprise sector that research and development drives exports and profitability and helps to secure and grow jobs”.

The Framework of Metrics and Targets for STI Investment has been developed based on work carried out by Forfás.