The Government is to be applauded for backing the Technology Foresight report to the tune of £560 million over the next seven years. It represents an overdue commitment to a long-term vision for our country.
For too long the role of technology has been seen as a subject of irrelevance and boredom to the general public, and as such of minor importance to the Government. Yet, it has been the driver behind our economic success.
The economy is booming, the trends are good, the economists believe it is sustainable, we have full employment but for how long? Three years or is it five years, but what about 10 years? In the words of the great scientist Niels Bohr, "prediction is always difficult, especially if it involves the future."
The Technology Foresight study looked 15 years into the future for the very reason that we cannot know what industries will dominate our economy or what technologies will have the most impact on our lives by then. To see how difficult this is, cast your mind back to 1985 and try to predict where we would be by 2000.
The Foresight debate to date has centred on whether there should be investment in the bricks and mortar of a new foresight foundation or in the existing infrastructures in the fields of biotechnology and information and communication technologies (ICT). This matter is clearly an important one, but what we must not lose sight of is that there were eight Foresight panels and not just two, each focusing on a technology field.
The reason biotechnology and ICT were given prominence in the overall report was because they were identified as being important areas that would have an impact on other technology areas.
The Foresight recommendations were based on individual strategies that were tested and "future-proofed" in order to select those most likely to be of long-term benefit. These strategies were not just focused on the technology aspects but addressed issues such as education, investment, technical competencies and looked at the roles of the stakeholders.
For example, each panel considered the role of the educational establishment, the venture capitalists, the individual companies, the programmes for advanced technology, Enterprise Ireland and the relevant Government departments in implementing these strategies. For many of these strategies what is needed is leadership from the various stakeholders as well as funding to prime them.
As part of the Foresight strategy, technology areas where Ireland as a nation must invest and develop were identified to ensure that whatever our future may hold over the next 15 years, we as a small island nation on the periphery of Europe will have the skills and technologies to ensure our continued prosperity.
The implementation panel overseeing the Foresight recommendations must ensure that money is ring-fenced so that it is directed solely towards implementing the recommendations of all the Foresight panels. Its emphasis and funding should primarily be directed towards developing our R&D expertise and competencies, both in our third-level institutions and in industry.
THIS should encompass the technologies identified in the Foresight reports as well as in the key technology areas of ICT and biotechnology and their applications. Technology areas should not be neglected just because they do not fit under the umbrellas of biotechnology and ICT as they are defined in today's terms.
To illustrate this point, the application of ICT will have enormous implications in the way we manufacture in the future because of coming developments in intelligent manufacturing and virtual manufacturing, to name just two areas. In terms of biotechnology, this technology is also seen as important but not just from a genetic viewpoint. Bioengineering and biomaterials are the fundamental technologies behind the medical device industry which the IDA promotes through Ireland being the healthcare capital of Europe.
Furthermore, it is not enough that we develop our technological competencies and strengths, we need to ensure the technology is transferred from research into industrial development where it can be used for innovative products and services. It is imperative to improve our ability to transfer technologies developed by the world class R&D of our laboratories and research centres into the marketplace.
We also need to ensure there is a more coherent interface between third-level institutions and industry which manages this crucial process of technology transfer.
The opportunity to invest and develop our national competencies in targeted technologies which have the potential for significant impact on our future prosperity should not be overlooked in the debate over institutes and foundations. Future technological advances will not happen in isolation. It would be a grave mistake to neglect the strategic strengthening of the R&D capabilities of our country in line with the recommendations of all the individual Foresight panel reports. In implementing the Foresight recommendations, it should be borne in mind that the battles of the future are all too often fought with the conflicts of the past.
When our children, who are now entering primary school, go looking for jobs in the year 2015, will they praise us for our foresight or damn us for our myopia?
Dr Joe Healy is technical operations manager at AMT Ireland and Materials Ireland and was the technical secretary of the Materials and Manufacturing Processes Panel for the Technology Foresight initiative.