Benefits of academia and industry working together

Ireland has 12 major Science Foundation Ireland research centres in which world-class science involving more than 1,000 researchers is under way. The work covers a range of scientific areas, but all of it is based on research excellence and research relevance.

The Irish Centre for Fetal and Neonatal Translation Research (Infant) based at University College Cork is doing important work in pregnancy research and serious conditions such as precampaign.

The Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research Centre (Amber) is working with new materials and nanotechnology for industry as well as for medical applications.

All of the centres are structured so that they support collaborations between academic researchers and companies looking to research, solve problems and develop new products. This is a reflection of how things have changed, according to Prof Mark Ferguson, director general of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).

"Commercial research has changed dramatically in the past few years. More and more companies are using open-source innovation, turning to the best people in research around the world and working in collaboration with them and not only in-house. The boundaries between academic and industrial research have also blurred. Academics are more willing to collaborate with industry," he says.

Research excellence

These centres are interesting in that they operate as public-private organisations with funding coming from both, says Dr Darrin Morrissey, director of programmes with SFI.

Research excellence is assured because funding is granted only after close scrutiny by independent international scientific peers. They also take into account research relevance, but the willingness of Irish small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and multinational companies based here to invest is also a sign that the centres are doing work that is important for the private sector.

“It is Government strategy to increase the level of higher value employment within the country,” says Dr Morrissey. It is also viewed as essential that both large and small companies here seek to embed high quality research within their organisations, either by setting up their own facilities or by associating themselves with a research centre.

It is also clear, when looking at other countries working to build up a knowledge economy driven by research and innovation, that this kind of joint funding is important, he says.

The current approach assumes that the State will cover 70 per cent of the cost of the centres and companies will put in 30 per cent. Of this the companies contribute two-thirds as “in-kind” support but the remaining third must be in cash.

“This really crystallises the collaboration,” says Dr Morrissey. “It helps to deliver a real commitment to the collaborative approach.” The centres have a combined €550 million level of investment through to 2020, with €350 million from the State and €200 million from the companies.

The centres represent “our gold standard approach,” he says. “You pull together distributed excellent researchers across the Irish system in academia and establish a common platform that allows private sector collaboration.”

The approach has proven to be highly successful and the 12 centres now have contracts with 200 companies “and it is building all the time”, he says. On the academic side there are 120 principal investigators engaged with the centres and more than 1,000 researchers working with them.

Private sector investment

The centres have significant capacity to support research, he says. “The model is you can go with big collaborations with the multinational companies but also support smaller projects for the indigenous SME companies involved.”

This approach pays off for the Government and society and also benefits companies who become involved, Morrissey says.

The introduction of State support and the commitment this involves is able to leverage private-sector investment. This means more research can be supported without added State investment.

These centres also create “pockets of intense R&D activity” that help to boost higher value employment, says Morrissey. He cites as example the pharma sector, which used to invest moderate amounts in the manufacturing side of their businesses here. Now they are more willing to invest in research activity that also involves outside academics.

“This approach also raises the quality bar. It isn’t just SFI evaluating the research and deciding to fund it, it is also the companies who evaluate the research when deciding whether to get involved,” he says.

It is also good for companies, Morrissey says. “If you are an SME interacting with world-class academic researchers, this is a credibility factor. Multinationals do the same by working with world-class academics to add value to the brand.”

This also makes it less expensive and risky to conduct research. You don’t need to employ all the researchers involved nor to cover all the investment in equipment and facilities, he says. If things go well, perhaps the company will begin to raise investment levels and know they can find highly trained staff in the universities.

“Companies that engage with the research centres are increasingly becoming more savvy about the potential of European funding as well,” he says. “There is a big pot of money in Europe for research. In previous [programmes] it was quite academic-oriented but increasingly the pot is there for companies to tap into.”

Appliance of science: Ireland's research centres making most of State and private investment
Science Foundation Ireland funds 12 major research centres which make it possible for our top scientists to conduct world-class science. The centres cover a range of research areas which in turn are in step with the national science priority areas set by the Government.

The centres support the work of academic scientists, but there is also a strong private-sector involvement. The centres exist as collaborations between academic researchers and industrial partners that must also help to fund the centres. Here is a sample of some of the centres and the work they do:

- The APC Microbiome Institute based in Cork is a gastrointestinal health research institute which looks for new drugs, antibiotics and for useful substances in our gastrointestinal tracts.

- Amber (the Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research Centre) is part of the Crann nanotechnology research centre in Trinity College Dublin. It studies materials that support technology but also human health.

- Adapt is the Centre for Digital Content Platform Research. It finds new ways for people and companies to share information and communicate globally.

- Cúram is the NUI Galway-based Centre for Research in Medical Devices. It develops smart technologies for use in human health.

- Connect is a research centre that works on the communications needed to support networking, services, applications and technologies.

- Lero is the University of Limerick-based Irish Software Research Centre. It develops software for use in a wide range of areas from financial services to smart cities.