Question to the Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (Mr Sean Sherlock, TD)
To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will provide details of the funding provided by his Department and associated agencies for scientific research; the amount of such funding allocated to educational institutions in Cork; and if he will make a statement on the matter. – Jerry Buttimer.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 16th July, 2013.
REPLY
The use of scientific research has a crucial role to play in supporting economic recovery and in driving sustainable employment in the current environment. A wide range of programmes are being delivered by the Enterprise Agencies – IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland, to promote research and innovation and give Irish enterprise a competitive edge in the global market place.
For the current year, 2013, the Exchequer allocations from my Department to the agencies under its remit involved in funding research are as follows –
Enterprise Ireland – Subhead B4 – Research and Development is in receipt of €131.7m from my Department, (of which €127m is capital and €4.7m current funding).
Science Foundation Ireland has a budget in 2013 of €162.35m, (of which €152.3m is capital and €10.05m current).
The Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, aimed at delivering world class research infrastructure, has been allocated €44.34m, (of which €16.7m is capital and €27.6m current funds).
IDA has been allocated €124.32m, (of which €86m is capital and €38.32m current funds).
In addition, my Department provided an allocation of €2.9m capital funding in 2013 to the Tyndall National Institute, based in Cork. This core grant is an essential component in the continued successful operation of the complex research support infrastructure within Tyndall.
It will be my aim to enable the research funding agencies under the remit of my Department to continue to support scientific research and thereby help enterprise to be sustainable and to grow and provide jobs in this country for Ireland’s workforce.
Science Foundation Ireland Funding Allocated to Educational Institutes in Cork
With regard to the amount of funding allocated to educational institutions in Cork, currently there are 118 live SFI supported grants being led by Cork based institutions spanning University College Cork, the Tyndall National Institute, Cork IT and Teagasc, Moorepark, Co Cork. The total awards value of these awards is €172 million of which existing commitments amounting to €92 million remains over the period to 2019. It is also important to note that the Cork based institutions are partners in numerous other live SFI research awards which are being led by institutions elsewhere in the country.
Discover Science & Engineering Funding
In March 2012, responsibility for the Discover Science and Engineering Programme (DSE) transferred from Forfas to SFI. The DSE programme seeks to promote the awareness and engagement of the Irish public with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) among students, teachers and members of the public. Funding for the DSE programme through SFI in 2013 amounts to approximately €1.6 million. This supports hundreds of events and exhibitions held nationally involving many thousands of schools, institutions, teachers and students. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of funding on a county basis given the nature of the DSE programme supports which also includes contributions from various partners. However, examples of some of the DSE activity of direct relevance to Cork this year are as follows:
– Cork Electronics Industry Association (CEIA) was selected to manage and run an Irish national CanSat competition in 2013. Colaiste an Phiarsaigh, Glanmire Co Cork was the winning school.
– Cork IT hosted one of the ‘SciFest’ science fairs in 2013. Scifest is a series of one-day science fairs hosted nationwide by the Institutes of Technology.
– “Engineering your Future”, a week-long, hands-on programme for Transition Year students, which is designed to introduce them to the exciting and diverse world of engineering, included a session in Cork IT, attended by 40 students.
– 78 schools in Cork achieved an Award of Science and Maths Excellence in 2012/2013 school year.
– Further details regarding the annual expenditure per programme and per institution can be found on SFIs website at www.sfi.ie
The Programme for Research in Third-level Institutions
The Programme for Research in Third-level Institutions (PRTLI) funding operates in various cycles, with Cycle 1 commencing in 1998 and the latest, Cycle 5 awards, being announced in July 2010. PRTLI funding is a mixture of exchequer and private funding. A list of the Cycles 4 and 5 PRTLI project awards which are led by Cork based institutions is outlined in the tables below. It is important to note that the Cork institutions would also be partners to many other PRTLI projects which are being led by other institutions nationally. Further details can be found at www.hea.ie.
Table 1: List of PRTLI Cycle 4 Projects and Programmes which are led by higher education institutions in Co. Cork –
| Project/Programme
Title
|
Lead Institution
|
Capital funding
(€m)
|
Recurrent funding
(€m)
|
Total Award value
(€m)
|
| Biomedical Science (Graduate Training Programme) and establishment of MMI
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
1.85
|
1.85
|
| National Programme on (Bio)Pharmaceuticals & Pharmacological Sciences
|
UCC
|
0.5
|
0.69
|
1.19
|
| Environment Graduate Programme
|
Cork IT /UCC
|
1.7
|
1.82
|
3.52
|
| The Irish National E-Infrastructure
|
UCC
|
0.25
|
0.25
|
0.50
|
| National Food and Health Collaborative Research Programme
|
UCC
|
4.06
|
0.75
|
4.81
|
| Humanities Serving Irish Society
|
UCC
|
0.20
|
1.24
|
1.44
|
| National Programme of Research on Knowledge, Innovation, Society and Space
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
0.92
|
0.92
|
| Nanoscience and Nanoscale Technologies for Ireland
|
Cork IT /UCC
|
6.85
|
3.88
|
10.73
|
| National Biophotonics Imaging Platform
|
UCC
|
3.70
|
0.95
|
4.65
|
| Networked Embedded Systems
|
Cork IT
|
6.45
|
7.63
|
14.08
|
| UCC Biosciences Cell Biology and Cell Signalling New Space
|
UCC
|
3.00
|
N/A
|
3.00
|
|
|
|
26.71
|
19.98
|
46.69
|
Table 2: List of PRTLI Cycle 5 Projects and Programmes which are led by higher education institutions in Co. Cork.
| Project/Programme
Title
|
Lead Institution
|
Capital
(€m)
|
Current (€m)
|
Total
(€m)
|
| Translating Biosciences into Health
|
UCC
|
19.10
|
N/A
|
19.10
|
| Centre for Research in Advanced Therapeutic Engineering
|
Cork IT
|
3.30
|
N/A
|
3.30
|
| Digital Arts and Humanities Structured PhD Programme
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
1.29
|
1.29
|
| Structured PhD Education for Life Sciences
|
Cork IT
|
N/A
|
0.29
|
0.29
|
| Environmental Research Institute at the Maritime and Energy Cluster, Ireland
|
UCC
|
7.50
|
0.91
|
8.41
|
| Food and Health: Generating wealth through innovative and collaborative research
|
UCC
|
2.90
|
0.50
|
3.40
|
| Graduate Research Education Programme in Engineering
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
1.04
|
1.04
|
| A National Graduate Education Programme in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
|
UCC / Tyndall
|
N/A
|
0.91
|
0.91
|
| A National Graduate Education Programme in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
|
Cork IT
|
N/A
|
0.30
|
0.30
|
| Irish Transgenic Network
|
UCC
|
0.26
|
0.50
|
0.76
|
| Molecular Medicine Ireland Clinical & Translational Research Scholars Programme
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
1.08
|
1.08
|
| Molecular and Cellular mechanisms underlying inflammatory processes
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
1.57
|
1.57
|
| Telecommunications Graduate Initiative
|
UCC
|
N/A
|
0.49
|
0.49
|
| Tyndall FlexiFab for Applied Convergant Nanotechnologies
|
UCC/Tyndall
|
4.46
|
0.61
|
5.07
|
|
|
|
37.52
|
9.50
|
47.01
|
Enterprise Ireland
A list of payments by Enterprise Ireland to Cork based educational institutions in 2011 and 2012 (latest full year data available) is outlined in the table below. These payments relate to programmes and activities such as Innovation Vouchers, Commercialisation Fund, Innovation Partnerships, New Frontiers Programme, International Collaboration and Technology Centres.
Table 3: List of EI Payments to Cork based educational institutions
| Name of Institution
|
2011
|
2012
|
| Cork Institute of Technology
|
2,354,568
|
2,561,202
|
|
|
|
|
| NUI – Cork
|
6,743,305
|
6,949,014
|
|
|
|
|
| Tyndall National Institute
|
4,271,196
|
3,771,873
|
|
|
|
|
| Grand Total
|
13,369,068
|
13,282,090
|