Biotechnology and the computer and communications sectors have emerged as central to Ireland's economic success in the decades ahead on the basis of the State's first technology foresight exercise.
Organised by the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI) in Forfas at the request of the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Noel Treacy, 180 academics, business experts and industry specialists spent a year looking ahead to the year 2015. Their purpose was to determine how Ireland could position itself to reap the economic benefits of technological advances that have yet to emerge.
The exercise required the establishment of eight "panels" each looking at different commercial sectors. About 12 months after the work began the panels and ICSTI published their findings in documents which map out how Ireland can become a "knowledge society", according to the chairman of the initiative, Mr Brian Sweeney.
ICSTI's overview of the report noted that the initiative linked investment in research, science and technology with Ireland's development as a knowledge society. The Irish economy needed to reposition itself from predominantly production-orientated plants to knowledge-based and innovation-driven firms.
The panels found that biotechnology and information technology were central horizontal themes which cut across most sectors. ICSTI recommended that Ireland specifically strive for excellence in information and communications technology and biotechnology niches.
This would be helped by the creation of a technology foresight fund, worth £500 million over five years. The scale of investment was "appropriate" given current and future output from the sectors affected and in the context of the potential to create new enterprises.
"Technology Foresight does not forecast the future, but the process can ensure that the strategic choices made now regarding the prioritisation of national STI investment are `future-proofed'," it concluded.