merrion street

Research and Innovation Minister Seán Sherlock is in Budapest today attending a meeting of EU Research Ministers.  The Minister will also meet with EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, to discuss the Commissioner’s proposals for future research and innovation funding.  Speaking in Budapest Minister Sherlock said:

My priority at these meetings with Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn and my fellow research ministers from across Europe, is to build strong relationships to ensure that Ireland maximises the benefits of our position in the EU in terms of jobs and opportunities to further develop our economy.

Thanks to national investment in research, Ireland is participating in the Framework Programme from a far stronger position than ever before.  The Framework Programme’s National Support Office, led by Enterprise Ireland, is charged with optimising Irish involvement in the programme and a target of €600 million in research funding to Irish researchers and enterprises has been set for the period 2007 to 2013.

Achievement of this target is well on track, with some €269m already awarded by end 2010. I am determined that we will achieve the target set.  Ireland supports the objective of the proposed Common Strategic Framework for Research and Innovation funding. It offers significant potential for making EU funding more attractive and easy to access for participants.

The full Press Release is available here.