A foundation for research Gary Crawley Head, Frontiers Eng & Science Directorate Science Foundation Ireland March 2006.

a foundation for research

Gary Crawley

Head, Frontiers Eng & Science Directorate

Science Foundation Ireland

March 2006


Reforming Higher Education for Innovation

Higher Education plus R&D is a recipe for a

knowledge based and innovation driven economy!

For example, OECD 2005 Scoreboard:

“Expenditure on research and development (R&D),

higher education and software can be considered

as investment in knowledge. Such investment is

crucial for economic growth…”


Reforming Higher Education for Innovation

• Strong, clear link between research and postgrad.

ed. The Ph.D. degree is a Research degree.

• But is investment in higher education and

research sufficient? OR

• Do we need to examine the process to produce

better links to innovation and enterprise? Such

investment is a necessary but not sufficient

condition.

• THIS IS THE QUESTION FOR TODAY’S SESSION?


Outline

• Linking Research to Innovation:

• The Irish Experience

• Improvement of the quality of higher education

• Focus on postgraduate education


OECD Economic Outlook (% change from previous year)

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1

2

3

4

5

6

Ireland

Finland

SpainSweden

United Kingdon

United States

Netherlands

France

Austria

Euro-Zone

Denmark

Belgium

Norway

JapanGerm

any

Swithzerland

Italy

2007 2006


Irish Government Strategy:

• Move Ireland up value chain: research- and innovation-driven economy

• Attract, Grow R&D activities within Ireland

• Broaden the activities of Multi National Corporations in Ireland

(Investment Development Agency, IDA)

• Be supportive of indigenous Small and Medium Enterprises, including

start-ups (Enterprise Ireland, EI)

Science Foundation Ireland is a key component in this strategy

• build research excellence and human capital

• foster academic-industry collaboration


A Brief History of SFI

• Technology Foresight Study Report – April 1999

• Focus on ICT and Biotechnology

• SFI launched – July 2000

€646 million from Department of Enterprise,

Trade and Employment (DETE)

• Director General, Bill Harris, appointed Sept 2001

• SFI becomes statutory body, July 2003

• Current annual budget is around €130 million


About Science Foundation Ireland

SFI invests in academic researchers & teams who are

most likely to generate new knowledge, leading edge

technologies and competitive enterprises in:

• Biotechnology

• Information and Communications Technology

• Frontiers Engineering and Science


Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

Funding Mechanisms

• Competitive research proposals

• Emphasize Quality/Excellence

• International reviewers

• No interference from politicians or other government

departments in SFI’s funding decisions

• Flexible funding tools

• Professional scientists as Programme Officers.


SFI - Programmes

• Research Professorship - Up to €2.5M total for 5 years

• PIYRA – up to €1M total for 4 years

• INVESTIGATOR Awards – €50K to €1M per year for 3-5 years

• Research Frontiers Programme – About €200K total over 3 years

• CSETs – University-Industry Partnerships – up to €25M over 5

years

• UREKA Programme – Undergraduate Research - 3 group awards

• STARs – High School teachers summer programme - 50 awards

• Walton Fellow Visitor Awards – International 6 month – 1 year

• Workshops & Conferences Grants – up to €50K


CSETs - Centres for Science, Engineering, & Technology

• SFI funding: up to €25m (€5m/yr), over 5 yrs, renewable

• True centre: whole greater than sum of parts, synergy…

• Partnerships with industry: 20% cost share (particularly people)

Real intellectual partnerships

• Strategically important to Ireland Inc.: advancing BioT and ICT

• Research excellence: potential to be best in world – “edge”

• Outstanding Director

• Important Education & Outreach component


ICT CSETs (2003 & 2004) Digital Enterprise Research InstituteDirector: Dieter FenselWeb: www.deri.ie

Centre for Research on AdaptiveNanostructures & NanodevicesDirector: John PethicaWeb: www.crann.tcd.ie

Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain-Driven ResearchDirector: Donal O’MahonyWeb: ctvr.tcd.ie

CTVR


Impediments to Innovation

• Intellectual Property agreements

• Postgraduate education


Goals of IP Management

Research Producing Organisation processes for

managing and exploiting IP should be:

• Open, reliable and useful for business and

industry

• Highly attractive to research sponsors and

collaborators

• Self perpetuating and self regulating

• Efficient.


Issues in Postgraduate Education

• Breadth in discipline

• Mobility

• Career paths

• Professional training

• Interdisciplinary programmes

• Funding


Breadth in the Discipline

• Thesis only PhD is norm in Ireland

• Graduate course work needed. WHY?

• Graduate qualifying examination?

• Need to coordinate across institutions to

provide courses in small countries. (these

have small disciplinary departments)


Mobility

• Undergraduates do graduate degrees in same

institution. (Irish problem?)

• International mobility

• Visas

• Funding eg Marie Curie Fellowships

• Language


Career Paths

• Belief in academia that best/only position is in a University.

• How to encourage shift in attitude?

• Internships

• “Professional” training

• Use alumni working for industry

• Talks on entrepreneurship

• Industrial advisory committees


Professional Training

• Industry looks for:

• Knowledge in a discipline

• Problem solving skills

• Communication skills both oral and written

• Ability to work in a team

• Grant writing


Interdisciplinary Programmes

• Poor sister in many cases compared to traditional

disciplines.

• Often key to real world problems

• Can use central administration eg Graduate Dean

to provide leadership and promote.

• BUT remember students need to be trained in

depth in something something


Funding

• European vs US model.

• US Universities spend more per student by

about a factor of 2. ($22,000 vs $10,000 OECD

average according to the Economist)

• OECD Report recommended Ireland charge fees

to make up shortfall in funding. Politically

unattractive.


Summary

• Ireland has moved forward economically but intends to move more to knowledge based.

• SFI plays a key role in overall government strategy.

• Ireland needs to revamp graduate education to better promote and support a knowledge based economy.

• Important issues are breadth, mobility, career choices, professional training, interdisciplinarity and finances.


Contact Information

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: 353-1-607-3268

Fax: 353-1-607-3201


Industry Research Partnership Supplement

To promote Academic – Industry collaborations

• SFI-funded programmes: already passed international peer review

• Directly related to & enhance existing SFI programmes

• Support of up to €200,000 (up to €50k/year)

• Exchange of personnel (PhDs & Post docs) and expertise

between partners

• Review Criteria:

Benefits of the proposal to the existing programme, to the

industrial partners, & its strategic impact on Ireland will be reviewed

by the Foundation


SFI System

• Staff make final recommendations, not panels, including

budget recommendations

• Recommendations are reviewed by Executive Committee

of Directors at SFI

• Reviews (anonymous) and panel summaries are shared

with applicants both for awards and declinations.

• Statistics and reviewers are published on SFI Web site.


Funding Agency Requirements and Guidelines for Managing Research-

Generated Intellectual Property.

• Promote common practice for IP management across funding agencies and Research Performing Orgainisations (RPOs).

• Strongly encourage RPO, Business and industry research partnerships and technology commercialisation.

• Support a consistent approach among RPOs for negotiating research and IP commercialisation agreements with any potential sponsors or collaborators.

• Establish readily understandable procedures and effective incentives for all the vital contributors to IP creation and commercialisation.

Prepared by the Commercialisation Steering Committee, Feb 2006


Speech by Mary Hanafin, Irish Minister for Education and Science, 11 Dec 2005

“Creating capacity at fourth level is about having

quality third level graduates capable of pursuing

advanced post-graduate study and research and

encouraging them to do this. This is essential to

enhance Ireland’s international reputation as a

knowledge hub”


OECD Economic Outlook

A foundation for research Gary Crawley Head, Frontiers Eng & Science Directorate Science Foundation Ireland March 2006.

Documents

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research outline

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