Survey warns Irish government of the need to increase R&D spending
Business investment in research and development (R&D) must increase from 917 million euro in 2001 to 2.5 billion euro in 2010 to ensure that Ireland remains competitive in the global economy, according to a new report. The report is called 'Building Ireland's knowledge economy - the Irish Action Plan for increasing R&D to 2010'. It was commissioned by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Harney, as a response to the Barcelona target agreed by EU Heads of State and Government in 2002 to increase expenditure on R&D to three percent of GDP by 2010. Currently, Ireland's investment in R&D is at 1.4 per cent, compared with 4.2 per cent in the highest performing countries like Sweden. As part of the Barcelona target, two thirds of overall R&D investment must come from the business sector. The action plan therefore highlights the need to 'develop a national pro-innovation culture supportive of innovation, risk-taking and entrepreneurship' among business people and researchers. According to the report: 'Ireland still lags behing other European countries in terms of an entrepreneurial culture.' However, in its vision for the future the action plan states that: 'Ireland by 2010 will be internationally renowed for the excellence of its research and be at the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress, with an innovation driven culture.' Improvements in the R&D performance, and particularly in the private sector, are urgently needed to sustain employment and competitiveness 'in an increasingly global knowledge-based economy,' the report argues. Indeed, the authors found that although investment in R&D had increased over the last few years, funding in keys areas of the economy was lower than in other leading knowledge based economies. The plan thus called for a national strategy to be put in place to increase research in education and public sectors from 422 million euro in 2001 to 1.1 billion euro in 2010 (or 0.8 per cent of GDP). Furthermore, the report suggests re-orienting the enterprise support budget towards R&D, and developing a new and less bureaucratic approach to R&D support that encourages a systematic and continuous approach to research within enterprises. The action plan then sets targets for increasing the number of Irish and foreign companies involved in R&D, stating that the number of indigenous companies with minimum scale R&D activity should double from 525 in 2001 to 1050 in 2010, while the number of Irish companies performing significant R&D (over 2 million euro) should increase from 26 to 100 over the same period. Similarly, the number of foreign companies with minimum scale R&D activity (in excess of 100,000 euro) should double from 239 to 520 and those with significant levels of R&D should increase from 47 to 150. Another recommendation outlined in the report focuses on the need to raise the number of researchers in Ireland to 9.3 per 1000 people in employment, by creating the right environment and career prospects to attract world class researchers from other countries. 'As a small, open economy, putting R&D at the heart of our economy, increasing productivity and competitiveness through R&D, creating an environment in which innovation happens by national design rather than individual fortune [...] will enable the standard of living and quality of life for our people to rise,' concludes the report. The Irish Cabinet committee on science, technology and innovation has announced it will consider the action plan in the coming weeks.
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Ireland