€245m is to be invested in the five new SFI centres
By Will Goodbody, Science & Technology Correspondent
€245 million is a big figure, by any measure. That’s how much is to be invested in five new “world class” research centres here over the next six years. The centres span a variety of areas – telecoms networks, digital connectivity, geosciences, medical devices and software. Two thirds of the investment, around €145m, will be injected by government through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), with the balance coming from dozens of industry partners – 165 to be precise. The five new centres will join the seven existing ones announced last year, which are equally commercially focused.
It’s a model which appears to make sense in an economy where the unemployment rate is 11%. Science funding is pooled, prioritised and targeted at areas of expertise which hold the highest level of promise for the creation of jobs here. Industry is attracted in by the opportunity of having access to cutting edge R&D people and facilities. In return these industry partners must stump up cash, and in-kind contributions. They offer opportunities for licensing, help train researchers in the ways and efficiencies of the private sector and provide advice on things like setting up spin-out businesses.
And it seems to be working. The first Knowledge Transfer Ireland annual report published this week shows that last year 37 new spin-out companies were created based on intellectual property and knowledge from Irish research performing organisations. Over the same period the number of IP-based transactions between research performing organisations and industry, including licences, options and assignments, increased by 48% to 139.
Of course the Research Centres Programme is not SFI’s only one. A scan of the organisation’s website reveals a range of other programmes that are currently open to applications. But many of those programmes are equally commercially focused. And a total commitment of €345m from the government to the 12 centres under the Research Centres Programme represents a significant annual cost for an organisation with an annual budget of €154m.
The question then is whether such a strong focus on a commercial dividend is to the detriment of what’s known as basic or blue sky research? The kind of free thinking, exploring and tinkering that has throughout history led to some of the biggest and most important scientific discoveries. The government argues that one of the advantages of having big centres is that they can give some of their staff the space to occasionally pursue research that may not immediately have an economic impact. And it says big focused centres attract top researchers, who are able to motivate and direct not just commercially focused, but also more fundamental research.
There are other sources of funding for science here. The Irish Research Council funds a variety of researchers, from early stage through to senior research projects, through a number of programmes – some with commercial links, others that are more independent and blue sky oriented. While Enterprise Ireland (EI) also funds research and innovation – though as the name of the funder suggests, the focus once again is broadly commercial.
And of course, Irish based scientists are increasingly sourcing funding from outside the country – from the likes of the EU funded schemes like Horizon 2020 and the European Research Council, and from other independent trusts, many of which support blue sky research.
But in general, those who do their best work when they aren’t under pressure to deliver academic papers, industry collaborations, patents and revenue producing licenses, have limited opportunity in Ireland for such blue sky thinking. And while few researchers will go on the record to say it publicly, for fear of damaging their chances of winning funding in what is a small country, privately many express concern and even dismay at the overly commercially focused direction Irish science has taken in recent years.
One way to redress the balance, and make more funding available for blue sky research would be to simply increase the science budget. The Budget 2015 allocation for science, research and innovation programmes at SFI and EI rose very marginally.
But briefing documents prepared for the new minister of state at the Department of Jobs, Damien English, show that department believes an increase in capital budgets supporting science, technology and innovation is “necessary to keep Ireland at the cutting edge of the knowledge economy.” It says broader public investment in R&D across all research funders, in particular Higher Education, must now see an upward trajectory between 2015 and 2020 if the research intensity target of 2.5% of GNP under the EUROPE 2020 growth strategy is to be achieved.
The question then is what will happen if we continue to focus almost exclusively on commercially oriented research here, and pay minimal attention to basic science? The argument could be made that funding of basic research is only necessary in developing economies which don’t already have a strong track record of innovation like Ireland does. It could also be claimed that blue sky research is a luxury for economies that can afford it – and we can’t.
Time will tell what the implications will be. But in the meantime, many scientists here quietly wonder whether our longer term ability to think outside the box, to come up not just with new products but entirely new inventions, to break new scientific ground, is being hampered by our increasingly intense focus on using the limited cash we have to create jobs.
Comments welcome via Twitter to @willgoodbody