Extract from An Bord Snip Nua report
The report of An Bord Snip Nua was published by Government yesterday. The two volumes can be downloaded from the Department of Finance website.
The following is an extract from Volume I of the report (Section 2.4, pp 22-23) as it pertains to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI). It is provided verbatim, and with no commentary:
2.4 Science, technology & innovation (STI)
The Group observes that over the period 2000 to 2007, there was a threefold increase in ‘Government Budget Outlays & Appropriations for Research and Development’ (GBOARD). Analysis of trends in spending and policy in this area gives rise to a number of specific issues of concern to the Group, as outlined below.
- Real returns on investment
Although spending on STI is promoted as a key element of enterprise and education policy, the scale and nature of any ultimate economic impacts arising cannot be known with confidence at the outset. The Group considers that any further STI investment must yield clear economic returns. The evidence adduced to date for the impact of State STI investment on actual economic activity has not been compelling.
- Output of PhDs
In the absence of a clear business need for the doubling of PhDs currently being funded, the Group is concerned that graduates will be underemployed or forced to emigrate. Indeed some empirical evidence suggests that 20% of new doctorate holders find employment overseas, and of those who remain in Ireland, most find employment in the public rather than the private sector.
- Rationalisation of funding structures
Funding of STI is dispersed through a large proliferation of supports and many target the same or similar activities. The Group considers that there is significant scope for the rationalisation of supports and a reduction in the large administrative overheads in the system.
Regarding the multiplicity of bodies involved in the formulation and implementation of science policy, the Group considers that streamlining the policy framework for STI will improve coordination across research agendas, bring greater efficiency to STI expenditure and maximise the potential for the commercialisation of sectoral research output in particular.
- Reducing dependence on Exchequer funding
Exchequer funding (as distinct from business funding, philanthropy etc.) has grown as a proportion of gross expenditure on R&D in recent years. This suggests some displacement of private funding by public funding and this trend should be halted.
Taken together, these considerations have led the Group to the view that the policy and funding mechanisms for STI should be radically rationalised and streamlined into a single stream of funding, and that the level of Exchequer funding for STI activities can and should be better-focused and made less costly to achieve given goals. The Group proposes an initial reduction of just over €100m, or 15% of the 2009 allocation, in the overall level of spending on STI, and the incidence of these savings across particular spending areas, as set out in the table below, is reflected in each of the Detailed Papers.
July 20th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Does any part of your brief include publishing open-source white paper protocols with the SFI badge?
July 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 am
Hi Mark. I’m not 100% sure what you mean. Please feel free to contact me via email with more detail.
Steve
August 4th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Regarding output of PhDs – I think it should also be borne in mind that at least 20% of PhD students in the sciences are non-Irish. I hardly think it remarkable in this context that 20% of the PhD graduates proceed to positions outside the state as their NEXT position. For those who are native Irish there is an attraction in doing so and sometimes this may be for personal rather than career reasons. In either case ultimately it is the long term career trajectory of both these educated Irish PhDs and non-Irish doctorates that is at stake. Seeing where they go immediately after their PhD is often a false indicator of what will then happen to them.
Regarding the last point I have looked in the report and cannot see any figures which support the “displacement” of private funding. The only instance where this might occur that I am aware is in the context of funding Wellcome foundation where as a condition of funding they require that you seek funds from no-one else. Has this Wellcome funding in Ireland decreased in recent years ?