Announcements includes first centre in cloud computing to make Ireland a
world leader in this high growth sector
Following the range of measures detailed in this week’s Jobs Initiative,
the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD today
[Thursday] announced five major initiatives aimed at supporting innovation
and high growth businesses. The announcements were made as part of speech
to the Irish Internet Association’s annual conference, entitled “Open for
Business”.
The Minister’s announcements include:
· A €5million applied research centre in cloud computing
· A €6million research centre in energy/smart grid
· €44million in funding for Principal Investigator research teams in
life sciences, ICT and energy
· Funding and supports for 25% more high-growth and high-potential
start-up companies
“Today’s announcement represents a series of initiatives aimed at
addressing the commercialisation gap, to ensure that good ideas can become
great businesses which create jobs.
“In my statement on Tuesday’s Jobs Initiative I said, as I have been
arguing for some time now, that if we are going to grow the economy and
create jobs we have to focus on three things:
· reducing costs to business,
· improving access to finance, and
· encouraging research, developing and innovation.
“I was pleased that the Minister for Finance announced, as well as
substantial measures on costs and access to finance, a significant change
to the R&D tax credit regime to make it more attractive for multinationals
to employ researchers and locate R&D facilities here. Today I am delighted
to announce a series of measures that my Department will be implementing in
the short term to significantly improve the supports to the innovative
Irish companies that will create the jobs of the future.
“If we are to develop the companies of the future in Ireland, we must not
only fund high-tech research in our universities and support high potential
start-up companies, but also crucially address the gap in between the two -
commercialisation. The Programme for Government commits to addressing that
gap in order to develop ideas into workable businesses so as to create the
jobs of the future and get the economy growing again. Applied research
centres and principal investigator teams are highly advanced models which
partner researchers with both universities and industry partners, to ensure
that commercialisation can happen.
“In particular, cloud computing is an area which both Fine Gael before the
election and the Programme for Government identified as a key priority.
According to a recent report by Microsoft, Ireland’s cloud computing
industry could be worth €9.5billion per annum and employ 8,600 people by
2014. The new applied research centre announced today, which will connect
both multinationals and Irish enterprises with researchers, can see Ireland
take the lead in this crucial high growth area.
Appendix: measures announced by Minister Bruton
1. Applied research centre in energy/smart grid, €6million (Science
Foundation Ireland)
The Government will provide €6m to immediately commence a new energy
research centre, funded through Science Foundation Ireland under its
Strategic Research Clusters programme. This new Energy SRC, which is being
hosted at UCD, will support the employment of 40 high-quality research
personnel. This is an area where Ireland is already strong and has the
potential to become a world leader.
The Energy SRC will partner with industries involved in developing the
smart grid, ESB, Eirgrid, Bord Gais, Intel, Ericsson, Siemens, and many
others. The industry partners already employ in excess of 20,000 people in
Ireland and this initiative will help to secure these jobs and will
underpin future job creation. The 25 industry partners connected to this
Energy SRC have committed a further €2.3m in funding over 5 years.
Ireland’s natural advantages in this area include its very high wind
penetration, abundant wave power and moderate climate. These factors
provide an ideal test bed to rapidly develop, pilot, and integrate new
technologies and together with the high profile of the industry
collaboration, have been pivotal in increasing the demand for engagement
with the new Energy SRC.
The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland acknowledges that the smart
grid will play a critical role in underpinning the energy needs of a
revitalised Irish economy, and will lead to the creation of significant
employment opportunities.
2. Principal investigator research teams, €44million over 5 years (Science
Foundation Ireland)
44 Science Foundation Ireland funded Principal Investigator (PI) Awards
will support close to 300 top-class researcher positions in a broad range
of areas.
The areas of research covered by these awards will include:
· in the Life Sciences – cancer, early diagnosis of the childhood
cancer Neuroblastoma, lung disease, genetics for improved disease
treatment, investigation of therapeutic interventions for Alzheimer’s
disease, Huntington’s disease, and Improved crop and plant cell
productivity;
· in the ICT area – neonatal neurological monitoring, graphics for
gaming, resource management in data centres, advanced telecoms networks,
autonomic management of smart cities,
· in energy – wave energy, and energy conversion and storage devices.
The 44 research projects have attracted 23 industry partners including
Inercept Pharma Ltd., Pevion Biotech Ltd, Sigmoid Pharma (Ireland), as well
as informal collaborators such as Nestle, Kerry Group, and Alimentary
Health. On the ICT side, industry partners include Intel Labs Europe, IBM,
Alcatel-Lucent/BLI, Aquamarine Power (Edinburgh), Infineon, Disney
Research, ESBI, France Telecom, Howard Science (UK), and a host of others.
3. Applied research centre in cloud computing, €5million over 5 years
The Programme for Government identified Cloud Computing as an area of
particular future potential.
Cloud Computing provides for the delivery of hosted services via the
internet and can represent significant cost savings to the end user, for
example through avoiding the initial financial investment in hardware,
ongoing maintenance, and necessary technical staff. It also represents a
huge opportunity for companies in Ireland to develop products and service
which capitalise on this new approach to computing.
Indeed, a recent report commissioned by Microsoft predicts that Ireland is
poised to capture a significant piece of the world cloud computing market.
The report suggests that by 2014, the cluster of firms involved in this
industry in Ireland could generate €9.5bn per annum and employ about 8,600
people. The availability of Cloud Computing will boost the formation of new
businesses and the creation of new jobs across the Irish economy.
I can announce that a new applied research centre in Cloud Computing will
be established as part of the Government’s efforts to support the
development of cloud computing in Ireland.
4. Competitive start-up fund, €750,000 (Enterprise Ireland)
Following on a pilot programme launched by Enterprise Ireland for start up
companies in the internet and games apace, a further competitive fund for
start ups will be rolled out in Cleantech, Industrial and Life-sciences
sectors. This will be launched end May 2011.
The total value of fund this year will be €750,000 and it will support 15
companies. It will be a competitive process for companies which will each
receive a €50,000 equity investment to support the company to deliver their
product or service or to get the project to a key funding milestone.
Companies will also be provided with a mentor who will work with the
company for a period of about 10 days.
5. Increased resources for the High Potential Start Up programme
(Enterprise Ireland)
In recognition of the importance of High Potential Start Up companies to
job creation in new and emerging areas of opportunity, the Government will
increase resources available to support HPSUs, so that by 2014 100 will be
created each year compared to 80 in 2010.