Latest news with #EuropeanInnovationScoreboard
RTÉ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RTÉ News
Ibec calls for increased public investment in research and innovation
Business group Ibec has warned that Ireland's current public investment model for research and innovation does not match the country's ambition to become a European Innovation Leader. In a new report published as part of its Business Ambition campaign, Ibec said Ireland must increase public investment in research and innovation to 1% of Gross National Income by 2035. The group is also proposing the establishment of a new multiannual fund, modelled on the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions, to support the long-term development, maintenance, and talent needs of Ireland's third-level institutions. The report highlights that industry is responsible for the vast majority of innovation investment in Ireland, while public funding continues to lag significantly. According to the research, this imbalance is contributing to stagnation in Ireland's innovation performance and risks undermining its comparative advantage, particularly as other countries are significantly enhancing their innovation ecosystems, often at a lower cost base. "Ireland is currently ranked seventh on the European Innovation Scoreboard and is classified as a 'Strong Innovator', with world-class performance in areas such as tertiary education and employment in knowledge-intensive sectors," said Meadhbh Costello, Senior Policy Executive at Ibec. "But if we are serious about becoming a European Innovation Leader, we must urgently address the structural weaknesses in our innovation ecosystem - especially the decline in public investment and stagnation in key performance indicators." "Business R&D spending has surged, yet public investment is lower today than it was in 2007." "In contrast, countries like the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have increased public research budgets by 20% to 40% in the same period," Ms Costello said. According to Ibec, the upcoming review of the R&D tax credit presents an opportunity use the review to design a system that accelerates the adoption of new technologies, strengthens collaboration with universities and research institutions, and positions Ireland as a collaborative innovation hub within global corporate networks.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Public innovation investment ‘has not kept pace' with private sector, Ibec says
Ireland's largest business lobby group, Ibec has called on the Government to increase the amount of public investment into research and development as Ireland drops below the European average for public spend per capita. Ibec has described Ireland's national research and innovation (R&I) infrastructure as becoming 'obsolete and out of date', claiming it is limiting research and innovation capacity in the State. As part of a series of policy position papers on Ireland's competitiveness and productivity, the group called on the Government to increase public investment in R&I to 1 per cent of modified gross national income by 2035 to 'fuel the long-standing ambition of becoming a European innovation leader'. Ireland's national research and innovation strategy, Impact 2030, sets out the target for Ireland to be classified as an Innovation Leader under the European Innovation Scoreboard by 2030 by achieving a score in excess of 125 per cent of the EU average. In last year's scoreboard, Ireland's performance stood at 113.2 per cent of the EU average, against its 2021 baseline of 108 per cent. READ MORE As it stands, Ireland's public investment accounts for just 13 per cent of the €8 billion national spend on research and innovation. Ibec said, 'Simply put, public investment has not kept pace with the surge of financing provided by industry.' The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science estimated that public investment in innovation surpassed the €1 billion mark for the first time in 2023. Despite this increase in spending, according to Ibec, the Irish State spends €199 per person on directly funding R&I compared to the EU average of €274. The group called on the Government to simplify access to innovation supports, which it said are 'underutilised by industry due to the administrative burden and challenges in navigating the system'. It said Ireland's research and development tax credit is 'too complex and time consuming to access for a lot of companies'. In addition to improving access to the credit, Ibec also suggested the credit's expansion to cover offshore related-party research. [ EU warns it could accelerate retaliatory tariffs over US duties Opens in new window ] It said this measure would 'reflect the realities of how [intellectual property] is developed across global operations' and would 'incentivise the retention of [intellectual property] in the Irish tax base'. To improve national research capability, Ibec has appealed for the creation of a new funding mechanism for higher education facilities in succession to the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions which was launched in 1998. The group has also called for the use of the National Training Fund to attract skilled research talent, as well as investing in developing the domestic workforce by 'expanding and subsidising pathways for skills development'.
