Government fuels up for late push in R&D race

Net Results: Hints that the Government was about to significantly revamp and upgrade its policies and funding on science, technology and research first emerged in a rather low-key way a couple of weeks ago from the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.

Opening Dell's enlarged facility in Cherrywood, Co Dublin, he mentioned the State's commitment to place new emphasis on R&D and expand funding in the area, to double the number of PhD students coming out of Irish universities, to create new programmes to encourage students to pursue careers in science and technology, and to develop more links between industry and third-level education.

But no one foresaw the scale of the initiative. Barely two weeks later, a phalanx of ministers gathered on a Sunday to announce a massive cross-departmental initiative that would see some €3.8 billion channelled over the next seven years into what the Government is calling its Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006.

Though a report, downloadable from the Enterprise, Trade and Employment website, goes through the general goals and intentions of the new programme, details and funding specifics are unknown at this time and won't emerge until the Department's proposals are put to the Cabinet in November.

But assuming the money will be on the table and the broader human, institutional and industry resources back it, this an extraordinary commitment from a State that is attempting to redress its emaciated approach to R&D. Even with the shift in attitude and approach in the past 10 years that came with major initiatives such as the funding and development of Science Foundation Ireland, Ireland still was in the bottom of the league when it came to pushing a reasonable percentage of GDP into R&D.

The report is unlike most government policy documents in that, rather than hyping a new policy and trumpeting past achievements, it bluntly assesses weaknesses and holes, points to what has gone wrong, and sets out an agenda for addressing problems and expanding on successes. Anyone with an interest in the sector should read it.

Whether we should make such a commitment, on such a scale as this new strategy, is not even debatable. R&D and a strong support for science and technology is the backbone for economic development in a knowledge economy and the longer we lag behind, the more damaging to sustained growth and future economic health.

But whether we would make such a commitment was another question entirely. While there have long been indications that, on Mary Harney's watch, this area would have implicit government support, many worried that it would be piecemeal and involve chamber pieces here and there but never a connected, cross-departmental orchestration of this depth and breadth.

Harney's successor in the Enterprise hot seat, Micheál Martin, has demonstrated that he will willingly move this agenda forward as well. Like Harney, Martin is impressive in his grasp of the ins and outs of the science and technology sector and its key role in the State's economic health. And like Harney, he shows a genuine, refreshing interest in an appreciation of researchers, scientists and technologists.

In an interview before his departure to Japan on the current trade mission, Martin said that the main impetus for the shift in strategy was simply that "it is accepted in Government that research and development are key to the economic development of the country".

We've already embarked on an effort to advance those areas "but we have to do much more".

Part of the "more" addresses a problem universities and companies such as Microsoft and IBM have identified repeatedly: creating more PhDs, and creating more opportunities for PhD students and post-docs (Irish and immigrants) to remain in this country, doing research.

Martin says the strategy also aims to give researchers and employees more mobility - meaning that companies "will have interdepartmental transferability, without all the red tape" currently involved in bringing existing employees into Ireland from abroad.

Another key element is to boost research and development activity among small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Historically, the involvement of this sector in R&D has been worryingly low - a concern repeatedly highlighted by industry groups such as the Irish Software Asociation and ICT Ireland - and Martin says the Government recognises a need both to educate and "incentivise" through tax breaks and perhaps other methods that will be revealed in the November document.

"We're also trying to simplify things to make it easier for SMEs to do research. We want to make them see that R&D can be part of their bottom line," he says. "Increasingly, success stories in business all have an R&D element and we accept we need to increase participation."

A significant part of this major plan will be oversight and management. To that end, the strategy proposes a new overarching, government-driven organisation known as Technology Ireland.

"By pulling together the SFI, IDA, Enterprise Ireland and government, we hope to have a single co-ordinated focus across both third-level education and the economy," he says. He accepts "there is the opinion that, until now, people have been pursuing their own silo".

Is it too little, too late? Emphatically, no, he says. "I certainly don't think it's too late and I certainly think it can work."

Time, of course, will tell. For now, he says the Government is pushing for greater Irish visibility as an R&D destination abroad by referring to us as "impressive latecomers".

He thinks Ireland has always shown a knack for coming from behind and doing well: "And we haven't seen the half of it yet!" But reflecting more seriously: "There is simply no choice for us."