AS GOOD AS IT GETS?:IRELAND IS on an innovation journey stretching beyond the immediate horizon. As a nation, we have recently begun to doubt our sense of direction. Before we lose our way, it's time to pull in and consult the road map.
We first charted our course in 1996. A White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation provided a compass reference to the “knowledge society”, where economic performance and quality of life would be linked to the production, transmission and exploitation of knowledge. Technology Foresight later placed signposts for the journey – prioritisation of national investment to support growth in scale and excellence around the areas of information and communication technologies (ICT) and biotechnology and pharmaceuticals (Bio). We also had warning that our vehicle was in need of a service. To reach our destination, a serious upgrade of our research investments and infrastructure was required. Science Foundation Ireland was born of these recommendations and with the programme for research in third-level institutions, over the ensuing decade Ireland invested as never before in quality-based programmes, strengthening the intellectual capacity of its people through research.
Our ramp-up of research investment was focused at industry supports and higher education, the former driving product innovation and development in Irish-based companies, the latter driving basic research to provide a pipeline of future innovation.
Business expenditure on research and development (Berd) doubled within a decade, testament to enlightened policy and sowing the seeds of indigenous innovative industry.
However, on close examination, 70 per cent of Berd is through non-indigenous companies, which the IDA has successfully retained. Looking closer again, 70 per cent of that 70 per cent is expended in about 20 companies, an all too narrow base on which to build a knowledge society. Higher education RD spending has almost quadrupled in current terms over that same decade. Yet this only places Ireland at the EU and OECD average for such activity.
Consider the performance of our vehicle so far. From a decade of just “average” investment, activity in our higher-education institutes has positioned Ireland within the top 20 countries globally in terms of the quality of research output. In addition, all Irish universities show significantly improved world rankings. Per capita, Ireland has the best performance in these rankings in the world.
Dig deeper and you find areas of truly world-class performance. Irish research in areas such as immunology (third in the world) and nanoscience (sixth in the world) rank among the very best in what is a global game. Note that these map to Bio and ICT respectively, evidence of national strategy realised through focus and application. These are not soft measures. They relate directly to the quality of outputs, which act as a magnet for industrial research investment. Yet, even as we reach the point of average resourcing – while performing at a level far beyond average – there are those telling us to change course, indeed to stop and let other nations complete the journey that we might follow their lead. Higher-education institutes are intimately linked to long-term wealth creation, but we are not commercial organisations. We can and should be pro-commercial. Our core products are knowledge and graduates. We must continually innovate to improve our product. Our graduates must now be imbued with a higher innovation quotient than any of their international peers. They are the precious cargo we carry on this journey. Our road map must lead to their growth and success.
Ireland’s headlong rush to fill an immediate monetary vacuum through monetising innovation has created a number of policy paradoxes. Higher education is rightly challenged to balance multiple objectives – education, research, knowledge transfer, societal engagement, industrial engagement, the translation of intellectual property into new ventures and spin outs. But this is complicated by an expectation of generating income from intellectual property in the short term. Reconcile this with the creation of a new biotechnology company, typically destined to spend up to 10 years in pre-revenue stages. The “return on research investment” is often reduced to near-term financial concerns.
As we begin our journey’s steepest climb, the conversion of our innovation potential into fiscal return, some advocate abandonment of the momentum created to date. Fundamental systemic adjustment, just as performance reaches the heights to which we had so clearly and so recently aspired, would be disastrous. Yet we are actively reducing research investment, capacity and the numbers of PhD graduates we produce as a nation. Clearly, fiscal reality demands prudence and that we choose our investment strategy more wisely than ever before. However, all innovative companies protect their activities in research in times of financial turmoil, as future growth depends on it. Such near-term impatience is leading us to potential diversion.
The warning lights are now on – we face a very real risk that an ad hoc drift in direction will cause Ireland’s knowledge pipeline to run dry. To reach Ireland’s knowledge society, significant corrective action must be taken to ensure we get back on course with our national policy and that we prosecute the markers laid out in our published strategy – or we will truly have had a wasted journey.
Dr David Lloyd is dean of research for Trinity College Dublin
