This month, the Irish government launched Innovation 2020, a five-year science strategy that sets out a road map for educational programs and institutions, and research industries. The goal is for public and private investment in Irish R&D to reach 2.5% of GNP by 2020. The strategy will focus investments on six industries: ICT; health and medical; food; manufacturing and materials; energy; and services and business processes. A key goal of the strategy is to improve coordination of R&D grants, tax credits and collaborations. It also aims to have 40,000 research personnel in enterprises by 2020; commercialize research through licensing, spin-outs and industry-academia partnerships; implement tax relief incentives; and help public sector firms procure R&D from small businesses. The government hopes to secure €1.25 billion ($1.4 billion) from Horizon 2020 as well as double private firms’ funding of public R&D to €48 million per year.

Source: Irish Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation