ElectricNews is carrying an article reporting the call from two NUI Galway academics for more government funding of technology tranfer.
Cunningham and Harney argue that this process of commercialising research should be a vital component of the Government’s pledged investment of EUR3.8 billion to build a knowledge economy.
I absolutely agree. And in fact it already is. A large number of the programmes that SFI funds support industry-academia collaboration in one way or another. Two examples: the Industrial Supplement Award provides additional funding to a Principal Investigator (i.e. an SFI-funded researcher) who wishes to engage with an industrial partner for a targeted research project. Secondly, the Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology programme has industrial collaboration baked in from the start. Any project funded under this programme must have industrial collaboration at the outset, and industrial cost-share.
These two programmes are at opposite ends of the funding spectrum (with funding ranging from about €50k to up to €25 million), but there are a number of intermediate options also.
Where SFI leaves off, Enterprise Ireland picks up. A couple of EI programmes in the space include the Innovation Partnerships and the Research Commercialisation programmes.
While I agree with just about everything written in the article, I’m a little frustrated by the tone of it:
“Ireland should be attracting the best PhD students in the world and also needs to encourage the internationalisation of Irish research and researchers in worldwide centres of excellence.”
That’s exactly what we’re doing! Without exception, every SFI-funded researcher that I’ve been in contact with since I joined has a veritable “United Nations” post-grad cohort, with students drawn from around the world.
The message that I take from this is that we’re not doing enough to get our message out there, and to educate the academic community as to the opportunities and possibilities that already exist.
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