Mapping the maze of state R&D funds

THE State support services have not made it easy for the company director looking for Government cash for research and development. It's like the kid in a candy shop clutching 50 pence - there are almost too many options.

You can go after money for process improvements or cash for joints industry/third level schemes. You can get a grant to hire managers to oversee your development or to prepare feasibility studies.

There are separate programmes if you want to specialise in the marine, food industry or the environment," and if you want to tag into EU programmes the options multiply like rabbits on steroids.

Irish companies have rushed to grab a share of the cash available, but that doesn't mean they are happy. The industrial lobby for companies involved in research, the IBEC linked Industry Research and Development Group (IRDG), has criticised the plethora of schemes as too complex and unfocused. And it considers the amount of money available insufficient.

"There is an absolute miriad of schemes but only one or two are really relevant to Irish industry," states Dr Dick Kavanagh of IRDG.

And that just doesn't get across to those delivering them."

He welcomes the availability of State and EU funding for companies wanting to improve processes and products, but believes it should be easier to access. "What a company needs is a very good person who will talk about its intentions and then go behind the scenes and draw on the various programmes. At the moment they sell directly to the companies and this just confuses firms."

He argues for a "unified system" where an agent knows a business and talks to officials before selecting funding options and applying for cash on the firm's behalf.

The amount of money under consideration is not insubstantial despite what IRDG might like to see on the table. One of the most popular programmes, Measure I, has a planned 1994-99 lifespan and EUI cash worth £109 million, designed to be matched pound for pound by the companies applying. It has proved almost too popular, however, and the money will have run out completely before the end of this year.

The Minister of State for Commerce, Science and Technology Mr Pat Rabbitte, gave a commitment, last week to try and find an additional £50 million to keep it going until 1999, drawing on other Structural Fund monies.

Forbairt, which oversees the Measure I scheme has already dished out £78 million of the £88 million it has available, according to Mr Kevin O'Rourke for Forbairt.

Earlier programmes used to attract about 100 applicants per year, he said but Measure I is generating about 250 applications a year. "This in itself is an indication of the ramped up awareness.

There is no "typical" research project under Measure I, he said with grants running, from says £20,000, all the way to £500,000 or more.

Yet Measure I is but one of, dozens of options open to companies. The difficulty for the company wanting to pursue R&D, however is" identifying who administers the scheme, how to apply, what type of project gets funding and who writes the cheque - the State, the EU, the company or a combination of these.

EU options include funding for communications and computers, telematics, industrial materials, the environment, standards development, marine, health, biotechnology, agriculture, transport and more.

Measure I is one of four Measure schemes, but these then subdivide - just to make things still more complicated for the company that wants to develop its R&D capability.

There is no easy way to overcome the bumpy end of the learning curve unfortunately. The best advice is to rely on the specialists in Forbairt, Udaras and the IDA as a way to help identify options before beginning to assemble proposals.