Third-level research 'has limited effect' on business innovation

Ireland's policy to promote innovation through interaction between businesses and third-level institutes is having a disappointingly limited effect, according to a study carried out by two economists from University College Cork (UCC).

In an article in today's Irish Times Innovationmagazine, Declan Jordan and Eoin O'Leary from UCC write: "The massive public investment in research at third level may have a disappointingly limited effect on future Irish prosperity."

The article is based on a paper presented by the economists to the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland.

"Our study is just one of a number of recent studies that fail to find the positive role for third-level colleges on which the Government has shaped Irish innovation policy."

The Government has committed €8.2 billion in R&D expenditure over the period 2006 to 2013, under the Strategy for Science Technology and Innovation.

The economists claim that the Government policy is based on a "science-push" view of innovation, where scientific laboratories are the source of the new products and processes introduced in Irish businesses.

"It overlooks the majority of business innovations that are non-technological, the shining example of which is Ryanair," they write. "It is also misguided in that business innovation is usually market-led. Historically, third-level institutes have rarely been the main source of business innovation in any country."

In their first survey of 184 high-technology businesses in 2004, they found that the greater the frequency of direct interaction with academics, the lower the probability of both product and process innovation.

In 2007, they undertook a similar survey of nearly 200 small and medium enterprises in the southwest and southeast and found interaction with third-level institutes had no effect on innovation.

In a written response, a spokesman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment said: "The policy implications put forward are based on the false premise that Government policy is static and unresponsive to emerging trends. A more careful consideration of Government policy would show that there are multiple objectives underpinning an integrated science, technology and innovation strategy."