We saw the impact of too little support for research in the flight of the scientific geese during the dire 1980s

ARE WE MAKING progress towards a knowledge economy? How do we know whether we are achieving this goal or whether our tax euro are being squandered on labs and scientists?

The Government and the various bodies pouring money into Irish labs will of course claim that we are on our way and the €1 billion investment so far is money well spent. The question is whether or not we can provide an objective measure of that claimed progress.

A plethora of statistics are hauled out if you express any doubt about this. Our biggest funder of research, Science Foundation Ireland, conducted a 2009 census of clients in an attempt to gauge progress to date. It catalogued the number of people involved and their research output, which was measured in patents, publications, private sector collaborations and other such metrics.

There were 822 awards made in that year – 149 of them principal investigator awards. This group alone was responsible for supporting 751 research team members including 289 postdoctoral researchers and 350 PhD students.

On the commercial side, there were 186 research collaborations achieved by these 149 principal investigator-led groups, done in cooperation with 125 companies. There were 35 patents, 38 invention disclosures, and 586 academic collaborations. But are these all signs that we’re doing well and that the money is being well spent?

Certainly, a large number of the researchers are here and working as a result of the money, rather than living abroad or emigrating to pursue their research careers. We saw the impact of too little support for research in the flight of the scientific geese during the dire 1980s.

Equally, patents are being produced, new knowledge is being delivered and our reputation abroad as a place where high quality research takes place is now much better than it was in the late 1990s.

This is all very true, but you still have to ask: are we getting value, and is this big adventure in science paying any dividends on the State investment?

The real proof, the human proof, will come when we can show that jobs are beginning to arise as a result of research. This is the thinking behind the Government’s determination to see new companies being formed and people being hired as research findings are commercialised.

However, the hoped-for flux of jobs seems to be happening too slowly to absorb the volume of science and engineering graduates now flowing from our third-level system. Disgruntled graduates are complaining about having to leave Ireland because of a lack of jobs, indicating that the private sector system is not able to accommodate them.

Certainly, money is being made available to encourage company formation and job creation in the smart economy sector. The Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe made €25 million available earlier this year to help 27 research projects turn their discoveries into companies.

It takes time, however, to get these enterprises underway and hiring. And in the meantime, would-be employees are beginning to take to the boats in order to find work suited to their qualifications.

Maybe we need to take a different approach. By all means support these “high-potential” startups but we can also direct money into the larger, indigenous high-tech companies.

It is a bit like the grow-your-own-bonsai kits. You get dirt, a seed and a bowl, but you will be waiting a terribly long time to get a tree. There is merit in buying a grown bonsai that has already got a trunk, branches and leaves and then feed it and help it grow.

Perhaps more money could be plugged into helping research-driven Irish companies to grow and develop. The multinationals are important to our economy, but they can come and go as the market dictates. Indigenous companies are based here, want to stay here and the larger ones are capable of producing jobs.

This would provide opportunities for the Irish science and engineering graduates who are wondering what to do next, given the paucity of jobs. It also matches the Innovation Taskforce’s stated ambition, to increase the number of “world leading innovation-intensive companies, each having a global footprint, many of which are Irish headquarter and owned” by 2020.

Feeding the trees that already have branches will give you more for your money more quickly, and there should still be enough plant food left behind in the watering can to help the seedlings grow.