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Research for Ireland’s Future
EXCELLENCE AND IMPACT – AN OVERVIEW OF SFI
PROFESSOR MARK FERGUSON
DIRECTOR GENERAL, SFI & CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER TO GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND
• Founded 12 years ago
• > €1.5 billion committed to date
“SFI WILL BUILD AND STRENGTHEN SCIENTIFIC ANDENGINEERING RESEARCH AND IT’S
INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE AREAS OF GREATEST STRATEGIC VALUE TO IRELAND’S LONG TERM
COMPETITIVENESS AND DEVELOPMENT.”
Science Foundation Ireland
SFI Expenditure on R&D 2000 - 2012
What SFI actually does• Makes grants to Higher Education Institutes in Ireland
• Based on competitive, international merit review for scientific excellence and
impact
• Trains people
• Builds infrastructure
• Produces scientific results and technology
• Significant industrial linkages attracting, anchoring and starting companies
• Leverages other research funding e.g. Industrial / EU / Charitable / Philanthropic
People & technology transfer to Industry & Society
Industry more competitive, better public services
Higher value products/services
Higher living standards
What do we currently get for our annual €150m?
• A research ‘engine’ of 3000 people, led by 500 leading
scientists
• 28 clusters/centres of scale
• 5740 scientific publications
• 80 patent filings, 27 patents awarded
• 39 licensed technologies
• 10 spin out companies formed
• 583 companies partaking in 1,035 collaborations
• €156m in leveraged non-SFI funding
What has Ireland achieved on this platform?
Building on the emerging technical foundation the Industrial base is transforming
Value of Exports*2000 2009€38b €87b€44b €18b
R&D FirmsNon R&D Firms
Year
Major growth in commercialisation outputs
R&D projects now represent half of all multinational investments (up from 10% just 5 years ago)
*Similar trend in value-added & employment
Job Links to SFI
SFI is a key part of the enterprise ecosystem
•From 1 January – 17 August 2012
• 61% of the companies who announced new jobs
have some links to SFI funded researchers
• SFI has connections to 3,975 of the 5,701 jobs
announced by the IDA during this period
Key Government Reports
Public Expenditure on R&D (2011) by Funder
Total: €919 million
SFI Agenda 2020Excellence and Impact
4 Strategic Objectives:
(A)To be the best science funding agency in the world at creating
impact from excellent research and demonstrating clear value for
money invested
(B)To be the exemplar in building partnerships that fund excellent
science and drive it out into the market and society
(C)To have the most engaged and scientifically informed public
(D)To represent the ideal modern public service organisation, staffed in
a lean and flexible manner, with efficient and effective management.
Programmes open in 2013i.e. calls running
SFI Research CentresSFI Investigators Programme
SFI Research Centres – Spokes (Rolling Call)SFI / EI Technology Innovation Development Award (TIDA) Feasibility Study
SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) ProgrammeSFI Industry Fellowship
SFI Research Professorship ProgrammePresident of Ireland Young Researcher Award
SFI ERC Support ProgrammeSFI ERC Resubmission Incentivistation Programme
SFI International Strategic Cooperation AwardUS-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme
SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust Biomedical Research PartnershipEuropean Joint Programming Initiative (JPI)
SFI Conferences and WorkshopsSFI Partnerships Programme
Existing Programmes
SFI Investment in Energy Research (total funding to date)
CCS = Carbon Capture & Storage
Total investment in energy research to date ~€72.5m direct costs (approx. 60 active & 35 completed awards)
Industry Collaborations• 100 active academic-industry engagements with > 80 different companies
• Industries represented include multi-nationals such as Intel, GE Energy, IBM and
Arup, semi-state agencies such as Bord na Móna, Bord Gáis, ESB and Eirgrid, and
SMEs such as SolarPrint Ltd. and Cylon Controls
• United Technologies Corporation Research Centre (UTRC) – Energy & Security
• International Energy Research Centre
• Spinouts e.g.
• Wattics Ltd – smarter metering for businesses
• Crystal Energy Ltd – licensed, independent, innovative supplier of electricity for the Irish
market – real time pricing tariffs to encourage load shifting towards more favourable times for
increased grid efficiency and high renewable penetration
Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems (SEES) Strategic Research Cluster
http://erc.ucd.ie/sees/
Goal•To provide solutions that enable the development of an environmentally clean and efficient future electricity system. In particular, assessing the impact of key sustainability drivers: higher levels of renewables (in particular wind), distributed generation and flexible consumer demand.
Research Areas•Effects of variable wind generation on operation of other generators, transmission & distribution networks; integration of ocean energy; impact of electrical vehicles & other variable demand, evaluation of flexibility & optimisation of future portfolios
Director: Prof. Mark O’Malley, UCDSFI Funding: €5.9m + industry cost-shareInternational collaborations: Riso DTU, NREL, Durham UniversityLeveraged funding: EPRI, IBM
Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems (SEES) Strategic Research Cluster
Sources Loads
SmartGrid
Markets & Policy
http://erc.ucd.ie/sees/
Hydraulic and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC)
Goal•Contribute directly to national priorities for ocean energy sector development in two focus areas: ocean energy resource development and ocean energy device development
Research Areas•Hydrodynamics and modelling for wave energy convertors (WECS); electrical issues for wave energy devices and farms; economic & socio-economic issues related to ocean energy development; law, policy and environmental aspects of ocean energy development
Director: Prof. Tony Lewis, UCC
SFI Funding: €3.5m
Industry Linkages: Wavebob Ltd., Ocean Energy Ltd., Eirgrid; ESBI; Fleming Energy;
MRIA (Marine Renewables Industry Association); OceanLinx; Cyan Energy; PMG
Leveraged funding: EU-FP7 MARINET, CORES, MARINA, Equimar
http://hmrc.ucc.ie/
SFI Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) and Strategic Research Clusters (SRC)
Designed to be ‘the sharp end’ of the ‘oriented basic
research’ focus-key vehicle for enabling interactions
between the academic and industrial base
Key Objectives: Create centres formed by clusters of internationally competitive researchers from the third-level sector and industry – accelerate learning by collaboration
Exploit opportunities in science, engineering, and technology where the complexity of the research agenda requires the advantages of scale, dynamism, and facilities that a centre can provide – create critical mass to compete globally
Support highly organised, frontier investigations across disciplines that underpin the development and competitiveness of Ireland’s industrial base - create new science, new knowledge, new markets
Promote organisational connections and linkages within and between campuses, industry, and international collaborators – create new connections, develop new opportunities
Result: Dramatic increase in number of companies engaged in R&D in Ireland• CSET: 117 MNCs, 107 SMEs – SRC:101 MNCs, 74 SMEs
Some examplesBiomedical Diagnostics Institute (BDI)
Point of care diagnostic devices
17 patents & commercial licences to date
MSc in Biomedical Diagnostics developed–
62 graduates, many going directly to industry
Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC)
Interface between pharma and agri-food
Ranked #1 in world in ‘probiotics’ research
Translated research to market throughIrish SME (Alimentary Health Ltd)
CRANNNanotechnology – materials and devices
Global impact - Ireland #8 in Material Science, # 6 in nanotech19 people hired by Intel in 2012 alone
Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI)
Largest ‘next gen. web’ research centre globally- Linking data for new insightStrong partnerships with local industrylarge companies
smaller companies
SFI Centres Programme
• Proposal within at least 1 research priority category
• Excellence review for science and impact by 2 independent international panels
• Core support (up to 20%) platform research (up to 30%)
• Spokes
• annual call
• rolling call if >50% cash support from industry
• Must have overall at least 30% of budget from industry with minimum of 10%
overall budget in industry cash and mix of small and large companies
• Centre structure assists: open evaluation / sustainability / flexibility / evolution with
time
SFI Centres Programme – Highly Competitive and Industry Relevant• 120 Expressions of Interest
• 35 pre-proposals
• Leveraged from industry €92m cash and €163m in kind (total €255m)
• 466 companies (multinationals and SME)
• 11 full proposals solicited and submitted
• Industry cash of €54.6m (13.5%, range 10 – 19%), in kind €93.7m (total industry contribution
36.5% (range 30 – 53%), 247 industrial collaborations. Direct SFI funding sought €258.2m
• Decision early 2013
• SFI currently has budget to fund approximately 5 Centres
• In the 2013 budget negotiations SFI continues to make a case for increased budget to allow
the funding of more Centres
SFI researchers are involved in over 800 collaborations with over
500 companies.
- Over 325 companies with legal agreements in place
SFI researchers are involved in over 800 collaborations with over
500 companies.
- Over 325 companies with legal agreements in place
These collaborations are with both small and large, indigenous and
external companies
These collaborations are with both small and large, indigenous and
external companies
SFI & EI Technology Innovation and Development Award (TIDA)
• Designed to enable SFI-funded research groups to focus on the first steps of an applied research project which may have a commercial benefit if further developed.
• Over €8M invested in last two years, in 86 awards
• Reviewed by SFI, EI and International Commercialisation Experts
• Success metrics include follow-on investment (non-SFI), IP development, Licenses, spin-out companies etc.
• Post-doctoral training component – most promising candidates spend a week in Silicon Valley
Discover Science & Engineering
Discover Primary Science
• 4,000 teachers
• 92% of primary schools
• 500 Excellence Awards/yr
• 300 additional teachers
Second Level Science
• 200 secondary schools
• 25 tutor/facilitators Science Week (90,000 participants)
- 100 partners (400 plus events)Partnershipse.g. STEPS to Engineering, Intel – “Scifest”)Smart Futures – Engaging Enterprise directly