Commissioner wants more private funding for smaller businesses, reports LORNA SIGGINS

THE EUROPEAN commissioner for research, innovation and science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn plans to introduce an “innovation indicator” to measure spending output on research and development (R&D) in EU states.

The new commissioner also intends to “leverage” more private investment funding through the European Investment Bank (EIB) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“I’ve been talking to the EIB and we will be talking to them formally to see if there is any way that we can increase the level of investment so that it targets not just the big projects but also SMEs which are the backbone of European industry,” Ms Geoghegan-Quinn told The Irish Times in Galway.

The commissioner said she had “fought very hard” within the European Commission to retain the 3 per cent target for spending on research and development across the EU. It would be “retrograde” of states to cut back on such spending during the current crisis. Finland had recovered from its economic crisis by increasing spending in this area and it was now “never more important”.

However, the EU’s 3 per cent target comprised 1 per cent public and 2 per cent private funding so the main challenge lay in ensuring that the private sector maintained and increased its investment, she said.

“One of the criticisms of the 3 per cent target is that it has been an input, rather than output, research and development target,” the commissioner said.

Her brief would involve “delivering large parts” of Europe 2020, the new strategy adopted by the European Commission three weeks ago, and she intended to incorporate an “innovation indicator” to measure output in her research and innovation plan.

The innovation indicator would be devised by a small panel of economists and business innovators, she said. Her research and innovation plan, which has a September deadline, would involve her fellow commissioners in fisheries and maritime affairs, industry and the digital agenda.

The European Parliament would also be “involved at every stage”. Ms Geoghegan-Quinn has already identified Europe’s “five grand challenges” of climate change, food and energy security, economic recovery and the health and wellbeing of an ageing population as her priorities.

She intends to focus on developing an “i-conomy”, and to take a very practical approach to “breaking down barriers”.

She said she wanted to create conditions for free movement of researchers across Europe and encourage final agreement on an EU patent. “Firms will inevitably be wary in terms of how open they want to be, depending on their line of business. We need intellectual property rights rules that reward innovation while preserving competition. We have to get the balance right.”

The new commissioner, who outlined her priorities at NUI Galway and at an ocean technology workshop in the Marine Institute this week, said she also wanted companies to engage with young people to try and counter the “huge shortage of graduates in scientific research”.

“There are in or around 700,000 vacancies in this area throughout Europe at the moment,” she said.

The new commissioner said opportunities in the maritime sector could play a “vital role” in Ireland and Europe’s economic recovery.

Seafood represented 20 per cent of global protein consumption, and much focus was required on finding “sustainable ocean-based locations” for aquaculture, while ensuring commercial fishing was also sustainable.

Ms Geoghegan-Quinn was presented with the Marine Institute’s draft ocean technology strategy, Smartocean, which aims to combine information and communications technology with work in marine resources.

Multinationals such as IBM, and SMEs such as Nowcasting Ltd, which provides weather forecasting services to five continents from Ennis, Co Clare, had already developed expertise in this area, the commissioner was told.

Nowcasting Ltd began as an EU research project and has grown into a “globally-recognised leader” in its field, developing international partnerships, its chief executive, Dr Mark White, said. “We can forecast from the west coast of Brazil to the east coast of Africa . . . all from Ennis.”