Recovery

The Irish government sees research and innovation as important sources of competitive advantage, of new jobs, and of socio-economic development. In recent years, the government has focused its investments – through the National Research Prioritisation Exercise and 2012 Action Plan for Jobs 2012 – on those areas expected to deliver the greatest return in terms of jobs and growth. Going forward, there is a need to better evaluate innovation support and to streamline its delivery mechanisms, as well as further measures to encourage innovative startups. The National Health Innovation Hub represents an opportunity for Ireland to build on its existing strengths to become a global market leader.

In its 2013 Economic Survey of Ireland, the OECD set out a number of key recommendations for Ireland on innovation and knowledge-based growth. These included:

xReflecting significant uncertainties about the effectiveness of various innovation policy tools;

independently and regularly evaluating all actions in this area; strengthening programmes with proven higher returns, and winding down the others. To promote effective evaluation, it recommended ensuring that all innovation and enterprise supports have sunset clauses. It also suggested that an extension of the scope of the National Research Prioritisation Exercise to more explicitly cover the prioritisation of innovation policy tools could be considered.

xIncreasing the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of the innovation and research policies;

making it easier for businesses to access support; and consolidating innovation funding and actions into a smaller number of government agencies.

xIncreasing capital supply and encouraging entrepreneurship by lowering costs for small-cap

IPOs; centralising legal processes for intellectual property rights (IPR) transfers with the new central technology transfer office; and introducing changes to the examinership process.

This chapter builds on these elements, deepening the analysis and policy recommendations in some, and adding to others. It also benchmarks Ireland’s performance relative to its peers in some key areas using the 2013 edition of the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard. This chapter also provides preliminary comments on plans to “establish a world-renowned National Health Innovation Hub” – one of the ‘Disruptive Reforms’ included in the 2013 APJ.