Address by Mr. Noel Treacy, T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce at the Official Closing of a Conference on "Medical Device Manufacturing 2 - Current Technologies and Future Perspectives" in the National University of Ireland, Galway on Thursday, 9th September 1999 at 7.30 pm.

I was very pleased to again receive your kind invitation to speak at the closing of this Conference on "Medical Device Manufacturing 2 - Current Technologies and Future Perspectives" here at NUI Galway.

Among the greatest challenges facing Science and Technology policy makers around the world is how to convert scientific research in universities and colleges into marketable products and services. A crucial element in this is how to get firms to look increasingly to those institutions as a source of the expertise.

As we move more and more into a high technology economy, it is self evident that we must take a lead in this area if we are to remain competitive and generate the new jobs and trading opportunities that will sustain future economic growth.

The medical devices sector in Ireland is a classic example of how we have done this and, for many years, has been a key sector within the industrial framework of Ireland. It currently employs over 16,000 people and accounts for about 25% of all plastic medical disposables sold in Europe. It is also a preferred European location for leading US companies. The industry makes a wide range of products from catheters to orthopaedic implants.

An important feature of your industry is its good regional spread. The companies are dispersed across some 40 locations, with a heavy emphasis in the western half of our country.

Ireland is set to lead the way in the healthcare industry, offering the ideal gateway into Europe - the world's largest single market. Some of the worlds leading medical companies are already taking full advantage of what Ireland has to offer, such as Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Abbott, Bayer Diagnostics to name but a few of these excellent companies.

The success story in this industry has been driven by highly skilled Irish management, highly skilled Irish staff, and a support infrastructure including development of a sophisticated sub-supply industry. Another significant factor has been the pursuit by successive Governments over the last ten years of attractive fiscal policies.

In other countries much of the research activity is carried on within defence programmes, in research universities and institutes and in large corporations. Ireland does not have this infrastructure in the same sense as other countries. The impact of this has been to place an even greater responsibility on our third level colleges to take on a proportionately bigger share of this task than elsewhere. More and more companies - large and small - are paying greater attention to the importance of research and development but with much of our industrial base owing its strength to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs'), the extent to which they can engage in extensive R&D is less than certain.

A recent publication entitled "Ireland and the Knowledge Economy" quotes a survey of Irish firms which found that some 90 per cent of companies with an R&D capability introduced a new product or process in the same year; the corresponding figure for other firms was 10 per cent.

Yet, despite these positive developments, we in Ireland, in common with many other countries face a problem with the low numbers of our schoolgoers and college students who are selecting to study science, in particular physics and chemistry. The paradox is that the very success evidenced by scientific and technological discoveries, and the often controversial publicity some of these developments have gained, is partly responsible for this attitude among our young people. Advances in science and technology are seen by some as a key cause of environmental degradation, but all too often there is a failure to realise our hope of halting and reversing these problems lies in further discoveries in both the present and next generation of scientists.

It was against this background of addressing the disconnection of young people from science and technology that I, in my capacity as Minister for Science and Technology, sponsor a public Awareness Programme which is aiming to increase the attractiveness of science and technology as a career and to dispel some of the negative images which are unfortunately associated with it. This is a key science policy objective of the Government.

Indeed, this Programme has increased awareness, not alone among students but also among the business sector and the public, of the important contributions science, technology and innovation can make to national economic and social development.

And I am glad to say, many Irish scientists, industrialists and the various State Agencies, including both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have all played an important role here. By engaging in collaboration and dialogue with the public and media, and holding seminars and events such as this one, that explain the results of their research in terms that are both accessible and understandable to the layman, these forward looking players in the S&T/ Innovation community have all contributed to demystifying and increasing greater public acceptance of science and technology. While the task of this Programme is not yet completed, I am confident that with the continued active co-operation of the scientific community and industry, public acceptance of scientific and technological developments will continue to increase in the future.

The greater appreciation in Ireland of the role of science and technology in national development policies, experienced here in recent years comes on foot of a range of measures and initiatives announced in 1996 in Ireland's White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation. This policy document heralded a range of measures to support the development of the "knowledge society" - a society whose economic performance and quality of life will increasingly depend more on the production, transmission and exploitation of knowledge, than on the manufacturing and exchange of material goods. The Awareness Programme was one of the White Paper's recommendations which the Government has acted upon, but other important developments were the introduction of improved State S&T planning structures, mechanisms and initiatives aimed at ensuring Ireland invests wisely and adequately in those S&T areas that can best contribute to national economic and social development.

For example, as many of you are probably aware, ICSTI - Ireland's Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, who are charged with providing expert advice to Government on the strategic direction of science and technology policy, recently completed our first ever Technology Foresight initiative. The Foresight Report makes a number of recommendations targeted at ensuring Ireland is well placed to respond speedily to the opportunities and challenges of our technological and scientific future. In particular, it has recommended a very significant upgrading of the Irish research infrastructure. The overall aim is nothing less than to make Ireland a world player in research in those niche areas of Biotechnology and Information and Communications Technologies, that can best serve national economic development.

Our Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is currently preparing proposals on the most effective way of achieving the Foresight vision, and I will announce my decision on this matter shortly in the context of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 which is at an advanced stage of preparation by us, at Government level.

As part of a separate initiative but one which is also aimed at supporting Ireland's research infrastructure, I had the pleasure of recently announcing the results of a competition for the first cycle of funding from a new three year research programme in the third level institutions. This Programme will have a major impact in helping to keep Ireland at the cutting edge of international research. Awards were made to research proposals of the competing institutions on foot of an objective assessment by a panel of independent international experts. I was encouraged by the fact that, such was the standard of the submissions made by the institutions, the international panel of experts shortlisted £175 million worth of projects rather than £120 million originally planned for this funding phase - a challenge the Government willingly met by increasing its overall allocation to this Programme.

I was particularly pleased to see that the National University of Ireland here in Galway was awarded approx. £15.5m for a Centre in Biomedical Engineering Science. The Programme will feature collaboration with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, UCC, Athlone Institute of Technology and the Institute of Technology, Sligo. I want to congratulate all involved in this particular project and wish you every success in your work on it in the future.

The development of close ties between industry and our higher education institutions is critical to our future ambitions and the transfer of research knowledge into innovative products and processes is going to be central to generating future growth.

We have been successful in building a dynamic SME sector and our achievement in attracting large-scale overseas investors as I have said already, has been well documented. It is essential now that we build on the high value added industries and focus our energies on being world leaders in these areas.

Events such as this here in Galway to-day contribute immensely to building and developing high value added industries. I want to commend everyone involved in organising the Conference - in particular, Professor Tom Glynn and his team in the Physics Department here in Galway and Mr. Eamon Sheehy and his colleagues in IDA Ireland. I understand that this is the second of such Conferences involving collaboration between local industry representatives and researchers in Third Level Colleges.

I also understand that further such events are planned in the coming months and I welcome this forward looking approach by all involved. I want to see greater collaboration between industry and the Third Level sector. It is only through collaboration and partnership that we will be able to build on our recent economic success into the new Millennium. I am delighted therefore, that Conferences such as this one are leading the way for others to follow.

It gives me great pleasure therefore to officially close this exciting Conference.