Speech by Minister Devins at the Innovation Value Institute Open Day

Innovation Value Institute

For many employees, the IT Unit is just an extension number they call when some software crashes. Of course, IT has a far broader role in enterprises. Recent research has shown that IT managers are not being given enough of a role in the decision-making processes of Irish businesses and that enterprise innovation projects are made without sufficient input from the IT perspective.

IT is a vital component of any business. A knowledge economy demands we endorse IT and integrate it fully into enterprises. The valuable work done here by the Innovation Value Institute can address many deficiencies in this area.

Research & Development in Maynooth

Maynooth has come a long, long way since its days as a seminary. It now has some nine thousand students and a research and development budget approaching €40 million this year. Its excellence in areas such as geocomputation and robotics is impressive, while its links with nearby Intel through this and other initiatives are invaluable. The planned ‘Smart Park’ R&D facility at Carton Estate will confirm Maynooth’s arrival as a serious centre for R&D in Ireland.

Maynooth & the EU

Maynooth has also competed successfully at European level. The Seventh EU Framework Programme, with a fund of over fifty billion euro is a golden opportunity for the Irish research community and Maynooth has not been slow to claim its fair share. A good example of this is NUI Maynooth’s impressive Institute of Immunology. The Institute is a key partner in a recently won €5 million FP7 award, involving 10 partners from 8 European countries, investigating innovative approaches for the development of vaccines for respiratory illnesses for young children.

The benefits derived from EU Programmes such as FP7 and the Erasmus Exchange Programme are a reminder of the enormous advantages obtained through our EU membership. That is why it is so important for Ireland to ratify the Lisbon Reform Treaty on 12^th June next, so that we can continue to invest in our research infrastructures and attract the best researchers from around the globe, to continue to promote our investment-friendly policies and enhance our attractiveness as a location for foreign direct investors. The Lisbon Treaty will provide the necessary cohesion to improve and drive our and Europe’s competitiveness in these challenging times.

Innovation in Services

Knowledge based market services accounts for over 20% of total OECD value added and represent the main engine for growth within advanced economies. The sector is becoming an ever more important locus for innovative activity within the emerging knowledge economy. Services have driven Ireland’s exports in recent years. With services export growth of 17% last year, we are now the 11^th largest exporter of services in the world, with total services exports for 2007 of €64.8 billion. Computer services performed even better, growing 20%. With over 40% of our exports now from the services sector, its clear that this area will be vital to Ireland’s future prosperity. Integrating IT strategies into mainstream business innovations will be an intrinsic part of advancing this development.

Relatively few small businesses in Ireland have either the technical expertise or the financial resources to develop, absorb or exploit new knowledge of a scientific or technical nature. That is one of the reasons why we introduced “Tech-Check”, offering ICT audits for up to 2,000 growing businesses each year to identify appropriate ICT needs.

Skills and Innovation

The role of skills and innovation to strengthen competitiveness in this sector must have a firm basis in education and training. We believe that a sustained programme of investment in education and support for research and innovation that is built on building skills is an absolutely essential part of making sure that we continue our success in a growing knowledge oriented world. That is why we have set the national strategic objective of moving from being an investment driven economy to an innovation and knowledge driven one.

Improving peoples skills and a lifelong learning approach can also be strong drivers of innovation and competition. That is why it is necessary to extend opportunities for lifelong Learning to support the innovation capacity of the labour force. Government priorities include a strong focus on mobilisation of labour and education and training. Giving people skills through lifelong learning is important not only because it gives innovation a firmer base in society but also because it improves individual employability and ultimately corporate adaptability to competition and the pressures of globalisation. It also enhances job satisfaction and the quality of work.

Strategy for Science, Technology & Innovation

This need to add value to existing products and services, and the necessity to develop new knowledge based industries, is a central theme of the Government’s Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation. The Strategy has very ambitious goals. In relation to business innovation, it sets a goal of increasing business investment in R&D from €1.1 billion in 2003 to €3.4 billion by 2013. That is not going to be easy to achieve, but we are committing very substantial resources between now and 2013 to help make it happen.

Between 2007 and 2013, we are investing €8.2 billion to deliver the goals in the Strategy, spread across a wide range of sectors of the economy. €3.4 billion of that will be invested enhancing world-class research in our higher education institutes. It is essential that the investment in our third level institutes be fully leveraged by business if the full benefits of that investment are to be realised. Initiatives like the Innovation Value Institute are a vital part of that process.

For its part, the Government will invest €1.3 billion in enterprise STI through Enterprise Ireland, between 2007 and 2013, which will be targeted to maximise the benefit to business arising from the investment in basic research in the Universities and Institutes of Technology.

Campus-Industry Partnerships

Technological development and the fruits of innovation and entrepreneurship are not delivered by working in isolation. Whether between companies or research centres, it’s the collaborative spirit and joined up thinking and creativity that delivers world beating and life enhancing inventions and improvements. Information technologies enable this essential collaboration to take place.

It is clear from initiatives like the Innovation Value institute, and the enthusiasm which its members bring to it, that business has a real appetite for innovation. It is the Government’s responsibility to ensure that that enthusiasm finds fertile ground in the third level research institutes and the State Agency supports which form the ecosystem for innovation. In particular, the partnership between NUI Maynooth and Intel is an example of campus-industry partnerships that will drive innovation in Ireland.

The SSTI will invest over €300 million to target initiatives designed to maximise industry collaboration with the third level sector. These collaborations must be real, meaningful and deep, and not merely contract research, if the wealth of knowledge being developed in our third level institutes is to be fully exploited by business. State supports for research and development are tailored to encourage such real collaboration with research institutions. We are promoting these links through such vehicles as the Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership Initiative, with up to 80% of costs covered by funding, and Science Foundation Ireland’s CSETs, ( Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology), which have already been allocated €70 million in funding.

Conclusion

Globalisation creates serious competitive pressures for Irish business. Pressures on costs, increased competition from emerging markets, pressures to offshore to lower cost locations, increased competition for investment, and rapid technological change are all weighing on the shoulders of the Irish business community. To counter these pressures, businesses must innovate, moving their products and services up the value chain. Initiatives such as the Innovation Value Institute play a vital role in this process. It is gratifying to see the depth of involvement by business in the Institute. This is a clear example of industry acting to leverage the considerable resources which are available within the third level sector, and to tap into the pool of shared experience which networking brings.

In conclusion, we must recognise the challenges faced in integrating IT into any businesses. Small and Medium Enterprises may face a lack of resources while multinationals may struggle to implement large-scale complex IT solutions. Both the public and private sectors have had their difficulties in managing and integrating IT solutions in the past. Through the work of this Institute and programmes such as its Professional Diploma in Managing IT for Business Value, managers can learn the value of IT to their bottom line, can learn that IT is not a cost, but an investment in innovation.

I wish you continued success at the Institute.

In presenting Diplomas in Managing IT for Business Value, I’d like to congratulate those who have completed the course. I understand how difficult it can be to engage in continuous education while coping with the pressures of full-time management so well done to everybody.

ENDS/IP47