On Thursday the Government published a report -- Delivering the Smart Economy -- which summarises the science research activity in the State.

The report says the combined public and private spend on research is likely to reach €2.6 billion during 2009. Collaboration between State agency Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) researchers and industry increased significantly during 2008, working with 279 distinct companies; 173 multinational corporations and 106 SMEs. These include many blue chip multi-nationals, which employ over 56,000 people in Ireland.

The ratio of spending to GNP is 1.7% compared with the EU27 average of 1.8%; OECD 2.3%; Sweden 3.6% and Finland 3.5%.

However, Irish manufacturing is overwhelmingly dominated by US firms. Ireland cannot expect to find the equivalent of a Nokia, a firm that was founded in 1871.

The usual route for an Irish high tech company is a cash out by the promoters on sale to a US firm.  

Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation Conor Lenihan said at the launch that the knowledge sector would provide the “key to our economic recovery.”

The purpose of the report was to describe how the substantial State investment in research was going and what benefits were flowing from it, he said.

“We do need to demonstrate where that money is being spent.”

The report is a political document rather than assessment of strategy.

Direct State annual spending amounts to €900 million but with the addition of the cost of facilities, R&D tax credits and IDA/Enterprise Ireland R&D grant supports, easily tops €1 billion.

It is estimated that total R&D business spend will reach €1.7 billion in 2008.

The report refers to the March 2009, announcement by Taoiseach Brian Cowen that Hewlett-Packard (HP) planned to expand the Global Service Desk (GSD) operation at its Liffey Park Technology Campus in Leixlip, Co. Kildare.

This was a very good project to get from an existing big US high tech manufacturer in Ireland.

The report says a substantial part of the growth plans will include the creation of a research, development and innovation capability for HP’s global service desk environment. An €18 million investment will see 500 highly skilled multilingual technical support positions created over a 12 month period.

This begs the question as to how much real research will be done and how strict IDA Ireland is in the categorisation of what work is research.

I would assume to get a project, the additional 25% R&D tax credit is a helpful inducement and a liberal judgment is made on what is research.  

The report says the number of research personnel employed in R&D activities across the business sector in Ireland rose to 13,861 in headcount terms in 2007, many of them having relocated from the US, Canada, Japan, the UK, Switzerland and elsewhere, "attracted by the dynamic Irish RD&I environment." It also states that the latest data available shows that the number of researchers overall within enterprise increased from 6,937 in 2001 to 8,304 in 2007.

Maybe there is a distinction between "research personnel" and"researchers."

Growth in researcher capacity, led by Science Foundation Ireland, coupled with the enhanced R&D tax credit, is claimed to be a major attraction for overseas investors and "is resulting in a series of significant industrial R&D investments in Ireland by IDA supported companies, according to the report."

Over 40% of IDA investments in 2008 were in RD&I with approximately €420 million of investment. "Currently there are about 170 IDA supported companies with a significant R&D mandate with a spend of approximately, €1.7 billion" - - this figure should be €1.2 billion as €1.7 billion refers total for business spend including Irish companies.

As for the "over 40% estimate," it is not clear what proportion of R&D was in particular investments and what new investments were won that were exclusively R&D.

Caution is always required when statement like this are made without any supporting data.

During 2008 SFI researchers established three spin out companies – Evolvability (Dr. Conor Ryan University of Limerick); Socowave (Dr Donal O’Mahony, CTVR CSET at Trinity College Dublin) and Heystacks Technologies Ltd (Prof. Barry Smyth, UCD).

"Many more are beginning to emerge as the investment by SFI in research in recent years is reaching market potential,"according to the report.

In 2008, SFI researchers generated 135 invention disclosures, 95 patents were pending (up from 82 in 2007), 13 patents were awarded (up from 11 in 2007) and 22 licenses were generated (up from 8 in 2007).

2007 saw the creation of 13 spin-out companies from the Universities and IoTs. The number of spin-out companies created in 2008 was 7 but "interim figures for 2009 show a substantial increase with 14 already created in the first 6 months."

There is little hard data in the report and the business spending are estimates.

The following gives a flavour of the approach:

• Early estimates of R&D activity levels point to...
• There also appears to be evidence...
• Ireland has a unique environment that encourages linkage and convergence between all the participants in a collaborative research landscape.
• There is a trend emerging of increased disclosures of inventions, patent applications and start-up companies
• Publications by SFI funded researchers have grown from 1,252 in 2005 to 1,730 at end 2007. This has helped to move Ireland from 647 publications per million population (below EU average) to 1,100 (34% above EU average).
• We are building strong linkages to ensure diffusion and commercialisation of an increased flow of new ideas and knowledge to produce innovative products and services that will win export markets and create much needed sustainable employment.
• R&D activity levels point to sharp increases in the number of firms performing meaningful R&D (>€100,000), with 704 “meaningful” R&D performers in 2008 compared to 515 in 2005.
• There is also evidence of firms who were smaller performers of R&D in 2005 stepping up activity to become larger performers in 2008.

No jobs data is provided on the commercialisation of university research but it's likely to be very low.

Most of the spin-outs have single-digit job numbers.

SEE also Forfás R&D statistics 2009.

SEE: Finfacts article Sept 26, 2009: Ireland: A "smart" economy in food better than pie-in-the-sky aspirations?