The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O’Keeffe TD, today launched a €7m fund that will help academics turn research into commercial products and services.

O’Keeffe urged academic researchers to apply for support under the Commercialisation Fund which will be administered by Enterprise Ireland. His call follows the recent announcement by the Taoiseach of Cycle Five of
the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions - - the Government’s investment plan for physical infrastructure and research projects in our higher education institutions between 2011 and 2016.

The hope is that Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund will bring a steady pipeline of academic activity from the research to the retail stages. It is hoped it will help new technology-based companies to contribute to the Government’s job creation targets and create "smart’ sustainable jobs for this generation and those to come.

O’Keeffe said: "The Government is investing in human capital and in our capacity to turn ideas into jobs by bringing research to the marketplace as commercial products and services.

"We want to support researchers across all sectors but particularly those working on ideas and inventions that could treat and cure diseases, improve transport and communications networks, and create new digital products and services to replace outdated technologies.

"In doing so, we can create “smart” and sustainable jobs and give Ireland a competitive advantage over other countries in developing our innovation capacity.

"We should recall that Government investment in higher education research and development has more than trebled over 10 years and it is now above Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average levels. Our recently announced spending plans for the coming six years clearly demonstrate that the Government is sustaining this investment in people and, ultimately, high-quality jobs so that we can make Ireland Europe’s innovation hub.

The executive director of Enterprise Ireland, Feargal Ó Móráin, said: "Since Enterprise Ireland started funding the commercialisation of research over 10 years ago, 140 spin-out companies have been created employing over 1,000 workers with a combined annual turnover of over €160 million.

"From small beginnings, some of these spin-outs have grown into substantial employers such as Iona Technologies while others including Havok, Stokes Bio, and Changing Worlds have attracted significant investment from multinational firms.’

Academic researchers can apply for the €7 million fund until 12pm on Wednesday, 22 September 2010.

Proposals will be assessed in "a rigorous process involving external and internal review panels before a final decision is made by Enterprise Ireland’s Industrial Research and Commercialisation Committee."

The revised capital programme provides €3.8 billion for Batt O’Keeffe’s department and much of it will be spent on science, technology and innovation programmes.

The Government is shoveling money into this programme and it's likely to be a bonanza for public researchers.

Last year Enterprise Ireland gave Finfacts data on spin outs which was incomplete with no survival rates but even if we accept today's data that 140 spin-out companies have been created employing over 1,000 workers in 10 years, the blind allocation of billions to this area is both reckless, ignorant and stupid.
 
In 2006 a target to become a 'world class knowledge economy' by 2013 was set at a time we couldn't get our act together on broadband and money was no concern.  
 
Then post-crash when it was clear that the 2013 target would not be realised, we didn't wonder why the likes of Sweden, Denmark and Finland were powering ahead in the knowledge area. Policymakers repackaged the 2006 policy as the 'smart economy' concept to sell to the amateurs in government in search of a vision, and in the Oireachtas, no politician has questioned the wisdom of focusing jobs strategy on university research.  
 
We do not know how much of the focus is to provide researchers for multinationals or to develop an indigenous high-tech base.  
 
Usually companies try to meet a market need while the product of research may or may not have a commercial potential.  
 
We have targeted 120,000 jobs in this area in the next decade while ignoring the experience elsewhere that most high-tech firms remain small with less than 10 employees.  
 
We don't know where the markets will come from; as the survival rate is about 25% by a firm's 7th birthday, we have to create an unprecedented number of new firms; consistent with the boom period, no insider has risked the wrath of academic colleagues flush with public funds and the prospect of becoming rich without the usual route taken by the entrepreneur, to question the approach.  
 
And most bizarrely of all, when Stokes Bio, a spin-out from the University of Limerick was acquired by a US firm, it was applauded by the State agency, Science Foundation Ireland - - so the small number of successes will be sold off by the promoters before any significant added value can be returned to Ireland!

Finfacts article, July 2010: Cowen announces advisory panel on €500m Innovation Fund - Ireland; Half of membership on the public payroll