Money is currently being pulled out of research despite the persistent exhortation to commercialise

THE MINISTER for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe is playing the witch doctor these days, chanting a mantra as if trying to invoke a magic spell. “Commercialise, commercialise, commercialise,” he keeps telling academic researchers as he moves from press announcement to press announcement, as if simply saying a thing often enough might make it happen.

“Commercialise” is the Big Idea that Government has been peddling since the Taoiseach’s now famous “smart economy” speech way back in December 2008. The Chief delivered the Big Idea and now his DETI shaman, Batt O’Keeffe, is trying his best to make the spell stick.

There is nothing wrong with the idea, to expect to see a return on the billions of State money plugged into the research system here over the past 10 years or so. Why shouldn’t tax payers hope to see company start-ups based on high-tech discoveries, and the jobs and wealth that will flow from them? It is only reasonable that we begin to see dividends on our investment in developing a smart economy.

Unfortunately the DETI shaman’s incantation “commercialise” is not quite enough to make the smart economy deliver. While those who hear the call listen, immediately agree and may even start trying to bring a research idea to market, they keep running up against a reality check – money or lack of it.

It costs money to do research and it costs money to commercialise research. You can’t make the discoveries without the scientists, the laboratories, the graduate and post doctoral researchers. And you can’t commercialise without either a thriving venture capital market or some form of financial supports to bolster fledgling companies.

Money is currently being pulled out of research despite the persistent exhortation to commercialise. If money drains out of the research sector how are those discoveries to be made and their commercialisation to be achieved? We have already written about how funding for the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation is now running about 25 per cent behind planned expenditure. We have also written about how this has serious negative impacts on our ability to conduct world class science.

If there is any doubt about our capacity to do excellent science, look back earlier this month at the news that scientists at Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin took part in an international consortium that discovered a number of new autism susceptibility genes. Even more noteworthy, our labs prepared almost half of the data for analysis and conducted almost half the data analysis to deliver this remarkable result.

When you take money out of the funding agencies you risk much more than a decline in the amount of research undertaken. You make it difficult to provide the supports that can help commercialise research.

Look for example at Enterprise Ireland’s Commercialisation Fund Technology Development programme and at Science Foundation Ireland’s Tida (Technology and Innovation Development Awards) programme. Both of these put money into company start-ups at various levels, from proof of concept through to infant enterprises ready to begin trading.

Budget cutbacks to the organisations behind them put pressure on their ability to sustain these important schemes. This is the real junction point, the place where research discoveries are tested for their commercial potential and then begin to trade as stand-alone enterprises.

Both have come in for a degree of revision and were effectively relaunched two days ago at an EI event in the Guinness Storehouse. SFI says that its 2010 Tida budget at about €800,000 is in line with 2009 but EI’s Commercialisation Fund is working with less money. How are we to believe the Government’s commitment to the commercialisation of research if cutbacks reduce the supports for these activities?

A lack of funding is also clogging the pipeline of ideas that flow towards the marketplace. On May 17th, O’Keeffe announced €8.5 million in support of 47 projects funded under SFI’s Research Frontiers programme. This supports basic research, work that helps to deliver important discoveries which in turn can be brought to market. Last year saw €11.3 million going into 68 projects under the programme and in 2008 it was €23 million for 143 projects. Whatever you call it, you certainly can’t call it progress.

The Minister is correct in wanting to see a return coming from research. Scientists want to see this too as do all those paying for the creation of a smart economy. The Minister says the smart economy will help pull us more quickly out of recession, but he had better be ready to put up a tough fight for his 2011 research budget. If things keep going as they are we will have to call our economy something else. It will be anything but smart.