RD&I

Strategic Goal 4:

Smart Specialisation will encourage more regionally dispersed RD&I, strengthen the

enterprise base and identify emerging areas of opportunity.

Summary

Strategic Goal 4 aims to build on each region’s strengths and emerging areas of opportunity by strengthening the capacity for businesses to engage in RD&I and addressing gaps in existing regional innovation infrastructures. It also seeks to identify opportunities to enable inter-regional collaboration through the REP implementation structures.

Supported by ERDF funding and underpinned by the work of the REPs initiative, regionally based actors can drive local and regional initiatives to create new enterprise opportunities and innovation driven growth in their region through the €145 million SREIS. The REPs national oversight group, chaired by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment promotes inter-regional collaboration.

Strengthening regional innovation ecosystems through the Smart Regional Enterprise Innovation Scheme (SREIS)

Up to €145 million in funding is available to support projects aligned to the nine REPs through the new SREIS. Co-funded by the ERDF, the first call for SREIS was launched in October 2023. The Scheme is aimed at accelerating economic growth and Smart Specialisation in all regions by working with stakeholders to create a supportive ecosystem around regional enterprise strengths and emerging areas of potential, with particular regard to the areas of opportunity outlined in the REPs.

SREIS supports the development of innovative services through local infrastructure; innovation clusters; services to SMEs; and early-stage feasibility and priming research. Funding is strategically targeted at locations where an identifiable deficit exists in innovation infrastructure necessary to support enterprises. SREIS provides an opportunity to unlock potential and accelerate economic growth in all regions through a collaborative approach, working with regional stakeholders to deliver on their potential enterprise strengths and opportunities.

SREIS has four streams which support the following activities/projects:

Local Infrastructure projects – funding is provided to not-for-profit designated activity company/company limited by guarantee to construct or upgrade local infrastructure which supports enterprise development and where a gap in the regional ecosystem has been identified.

Innovation clusters and consortia – funding is designed to maximise enterprise collaboration between undertakings (startups, SMEs and other stakeholders in the ecosystem) through clustering, thereby stimulating growth and development of new or established clusters and consortia in a regional, cross-regional, or national setting.

Services to SMEs to drive innovation solutions – funding is designed to be strategic in supporting the transformation of regional SMEs.

Feasibility and Priming Grants – funding for costs towards the investigation of new projects from early-stage concepts to development of business propositions or through priming funding to support detailed development of projects through design/costing and planning to enable an application for project support at a future stage.

Enabling inter-regional collaboration through the REPs implementation structures

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Ministers of State, jointly chair a National Oversight Group for the REPs, which oversees implementation and encourages sharing of best practice and collaboration across regions.

By way of example, following a request from the then Minster for Enterprise, Trade and Employment in late 2023, several of the REPs with an interest in the area have established Offshore Wind Working Groups with actions or work programmes to support the development of offshore wind in their respective regions to further reinforce the ambition in the Offshore Wind Industrial Strategy at the national level.