Address by Minister Micheal Martin at the Launch of the Report of the International Evaluation Panel entitled “Science Foundation Ireland the First Years 2001-2005”

in The Merrion Hotel, 15^th December 2005 at 9.30 am

Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests

I am delighted to be here this morning to formally launch this Report - “Science Foundation Ireland The First Years 2001-2005 ”. This report is the culmination of a very significant evaluation process carried out by an International Panel led by Professor Richard Brook, who is with us today. Professor Brook is Director of the Leverhulme Trust in London, a private research and education funding organisation. He was formerly Chief Executive of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and is Professor of Materials Science in Oxford University. I know that Professor Brook has many demands on his time and I would like to express my sincere thanks to him, not only for the work undertaken, but also for taking time out from his very busy schedule to be at today’s launch.

Before I give the floor to Professor Brook to outline the broad findings of his evaluation, I would like to take the opportunity to sketch some of the background to this study and why I consider it important.

It is now widely accepted that Ireland must become a global knowledge based economy. A useful definition of a knowledge driven economy is one in which the generation and exploitation of knowledge play the predominant part in the creation of wealth. Or, to put it another way, technology and the knowledge on which it is based is an intrinsic factor of production together with labour and capital. Some commentators, for example the economist Michael Casey in a recent newspaper article, have drawn attention to the fact that the transition to a knowledge economy is not an easy one for countries to make and that Ireland starts with a number of serious disadvantages, including low levels of research investment historically and universities that have some way to go to achieve leading positions internationally.

We do, however, have a number of strengths on which to build. Ireland is one of the leading locations in the world for high technology manufacturing, particularly the clusters we have built in medical devices, ICT and pharmaceuticals. It is true that these are based mainly on knowledge and technology developed elsewhere but their existence provides an opportunity to strengthen our indigenous technology generating function built around these and the other enterprise clusters. For example, the rapid growth of our indigenous software industry in recent years is another foundation on which to build. The size but not the sophistication of our food industry represents both an opportunity and a threat for us.

As things stood at the end of the 1990s, the higher education research system, while greatly under-funded nationally, had shown resolve and initiative in using EU Framework Programme funding to develop a small number of pockets of high capability and potential. It was on this potential that the government focused its research strategy at the turn of the century. As you will all be aware the strategy has two main pillars – The Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, designed to build up the research infrastructure in the institutions, and the establishment of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) following the recommendation of the Technology Foresight report that Ireland needs a strong research capability in biotechnology and in ICT to underpin our key industrial sectors.

SFI was set up in late 2000 within Forfás and Dr. Bill Harris was appointed in September 2001 as the first Director General. In 2003, SFI was established on a statutory basis as an independent agency.

The scale of the challenge that SFI faced was widely recognised within the higher education system and was spelled out in a detailed study undertaken around that time - a Baseline Assessment of the Public Research System in Ireland in Biotechnology and ICT.

We have always accepted that SFI’s task of building a strong research capacity in Ireland will take time to realise; that research leaders, research groups and well funded laboratories have to be in place before meaningful research can take place. At the same time, we have impressed on SFI that there is no time to lose, that the world is changing rapidly, partly as a result of globalisation and the rise of Asian countries both large and small. One of the main foundations on which our current prosperity is built – inward investment of high technology, mostly American, manufacturing firms with a high or total propensity to export – is no longer as strong as it was. We are in a very competitive race to replace this groundwork with something stronger and more suitable for an advanced economy.

The Government sees SFI as a key part of this re-building effort. In particular, SFI is expected to deliver:

• Highly trained researchers in areas relevant to current and future enterprises in Ireland
• Cadres of leading edge researchers working in areas likely to generate knowledge with downstream commercial potential.
• Strong research groups whose expertise and outputs will be of interest to industry and will foster greater industry-higher education linkages.

In the context of all of this, and with SFI effectively in operation since mid 2000, my Department asked Forfás to put in place an independent, external and objective evaluation of how SFI is coping with the challenges we gave it. As I mentioned previously, to undertake the evaluation, Forfás assembled a small panel of internationally eminent scientists and engineers, chaired by Professor Richard Brook. I will leave the finer details of the methodology and findings of the panel to Professor Brook to outline. However, I am pleased to say that while the panel in their report indicate that it is early in the life of SFI to assess the long-term cultural and economic impact of the research it supports, overall, it endorses the establishment and strategic direction of SFI. I welcome this endorsement particularly at a time when the Cabinet Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Innovation, of which I am chair is directing the completion of work on a major Science Technology and Innovation Strategy to 2013, in which it is envisaged SFI will have a key role to play.

I believe this evaluation report will also be of great interest and benefit to policy makers in the Irish system, to the higher education institutions themselves and last, but most importantly, to SFI itself. SFI has made excellent progress to date in what can be considered its formative years. It must now build on that success, ensure that relevant metrics are developed to assess the longer term impact of its investments and it must continue to play a vital role in developing a research environment that will compete with the best in the world.

It only remains for me, to once again thank Professor Brook and his fellow panel members for their work in producing this report and Forfás for facilitating the overall process. It gives me great pleasure formally to launch the report and at this point, I would like to ask Professor Brook to say a few words and to outline the major findings and recommendations in his report.

ENDS/ETE 1481