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Ireland performing well in €50 billion European R&D Fund
Thu 2 Jul 2009 08:23 pm filed by the Editor - Ireland
Equivalent of €1 million a week in EU research funding for Ireland in last 2 years
Irish researchers are engaging in pan-European research projects to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the EU, using funding from the largest European R&D funding programme ever, the Seventh EU Framework Programme, Minister Conor Lenihan said today.
In the first 2 years of the programme, researchers from Irish companies and higher education institutions won funding totalling €107million for collaborative research projects in areas like ICT, health, nano-technology and energy research.
Minister Lenihan was speaking at the FP7 Ireland Conference taking place in Dublin today. FP7 is the short name for the Seventh EU Framework Programme for R&D which runs from 2007 to 2013.
FP7 is designed to respond to Europe's employment needs, competitiveness and quality of life, funding research in priority areas such as environment, health, and IT. The €50 billion fund is seen as a major asset in the EU’s fight against the current economic crisis with its ring-fenced budget growing every year by 13% until 2013.
Speaking at the event Minister Lenihan said; "The EU agenda complements our national priorities with an emphasis on moving new discoveries from the research stage to the marketplace, allowing Ireland to play our part in building a low-carbon economy and tackling diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease."
FP7 offers Ireland's SMEs, multinationals, and research institutions valuable opportunities to participate in high-caliber research collaborations with our European counterparts.
"I am particularly pleased to see that SMEs account for over 75% of the funding to private industry and encourage companies in Ireland to avail of the opportunities that FP7 offers" he said.
Dr. Imelda Lambkin, Enterprise Ireland and Director of the national support network for FP7 in Ireland said; "The Irish success rate ahead of the overall EU average means we are in line with the national target of winning €600m in EU R&D funding by 2013."
FP7 funding by sector in Ireland 2007-2009
Companies won €32.4 million of the funding to date, 75% of which went to SMEs, the remainder to mainly multinationals based in Ireland. The higher education institutions won 55% or almost €60 million of the funding and the remaining 15% went to public bodies and research performing organisations like the Marine Institute and Teagasc.
SensL is a Cork based SME that has successfully won funding from FP7.
SensL is collaborating with EU partners to develop a tool to detect prostate and breast cancer earlier and more conclusively than existing tests. Approximately 1,130 men develop prostate cancer and there are around 1,900 new cases of breast cancer identified in Ireland each year.
Intel Ireland has been very successful in the ICT part of FP7, and their researchers are involved in multiple collaborative projects in areas as diverse as enabling independent living, supply-chain planning and nanoscale semiconductor spintronics. For more examples of Irish projects in FP7 visit www.FP7ireland.comThe National Support Network for FP7 in Ireland: FP7 Ireland is a national support network set up to increase participation by Irish companies and academic institutions in the EU’s main instrument for funding research in Europe. Enterprise Ireland coordinates the national support network for FP7 in Ireland which has 11 member organisations; the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government, Enterprise Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Higher Education Authority, the Health Research Board, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering & Technology, the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Irish Universities Association, Sustainable Energy Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland.
The Director of the National Support Network for FP7 in Ireland is Dr. Imelda Lambkin, Enterprise Ireland.
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