Gary Crawley

1
Gary Crawley Head, Frontiers Eng Science Direc
torate
Science Foundation Ireland March 2006
2
Reforming Higher Education for Innovation

• Higher Education plus RD is a recipe for a
  knowledge based and innovation driven economy!
  
• For example, OECD 2005 Scoreboard
• Expenditure on research and development (RD),
  higher education and software can be considered
  as investment in knowledge. Such investment is
  crucial for economic growth

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Reforming Higher Education for Innovation

• Strong, clear link between research and postgrad.
  ed. The Ph.D. degree is a Research degree.
  
• But is investment in higher education and
  research sufficient? OR
  
• Do we need to examine the process to produce
  better links to innovation and enterprise? Such
  investment is a necessary but not sufficient
  condition.
• THIS IS THE QUESTION FOR TODAYS SESSION?

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Outline

• Linking Research to Innovation
• The Irish Experience
• Improvement of the quality of higher education
• Focus on postgraduate education

5
OECD Economic Outlook ( change from previous
year)
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Irish Government Strategy

• Move Ireland up value chain research- and
  innovation-driven economy
  
• Attract, Grow RD activities within Ireland
• Broaden the activities of Multi National
  Corporations in Ireland (Investment Development
  Agency, IDA)
  
• Be supportive of indigenous Small and Medium
  Enterprises, including start-ups (Enterprise
  Ireland, EI)
  
• Science Foundation Ireland is a key component in
  this strategy
  
• build research excellence and human capital
• foster academic-industry collaboration

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A Brief History of SFI

• Technology Foresight Study Report April 1999
• Focus on ICT and Biotechnology
• SFI launched July 2000
• 646 million from Department of Enterprise,
• Trade and Employment (DETE)
• Director General, Bill Harris, appointed Sept
  2001
  
• SFI becomes statutory body, July 2003
• Current annual budget is around 130 million

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About Science Foundation Ireland

• SFI invests in academic researchers teams who
  are
  
• most likely to generate new knowledge, leading
  edge
  
• technologies and competitive enterprises in
• Biotechnology
• Information and Communications Technology
• Frontiers Engineering and Science

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Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

• Funding Mechanisms
• Competitive research proposals
• Emphasize Quality/Excellence
• International reviewers
• No interference from politicians or other
  government departments in SFIs funding
  decisions
  
• Flexible funding tools
• Professional scientists as Programme Officers.

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SFI - Programmes

• Research Professorship - Up to 2.5M total for 5
  years
  
• PIYRA up to 1M total for 4 years
• INVESTIGATOR Awards 50K to 1M per year for
  3-5 years
  
• Research Frontiers Programme About 200K total
  over 3 years
  
• CSETs University-Industry Partnerships up to
  25M over 5 years
  
• UREKA Programme Undergraduate Research - 3
  group awards
  
• STARs High School teachers summer programme -
  50 awards
  
• Walton Fellow Visitor Awards International 6
  month 1 year
  
• Workshops Conferences Grants up to 50K

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CSETs - Centres for Science, Engineering,
Technology

• SFI funding up to 25m (5m/yr), over 5 yrs,
  renewable
  
• True centre whole greater than sum of parts,
  synergy
  
• Partnerships with industry 20 cost share
  (particularly people)
  
• Real intellectual partnerships
• Strategically important to Ireland Inc.
  advancing BioT and ICT
  
• Research excellence potential to be best in
  world edge
  
• Outstanding Director
• Important Education Outreach component

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ICT CSETs (2003 2004)

• Digital Enterprise Research Institute
• Director Dieter Fensel
• Web www.deri.ie

Centre for Research on Adaptive
Nanostructures Nanodevices Director John Pethi
ca
Web www.crann.tcd.ie
Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain-Driv
en Research Director Donal OMahony Web ctvr.t
cd.ie

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Impediments to Innovation

• Intellectual Property agreements
• Postgraduate education

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Goals of IP Management

• Research Producing Organisation processes for
  managing and exploiting IP should be
  
• Open, reliable and useful for business and
  industry
  
• Highly attractive to research sponsors and
  collaborators
  
• Self perpetuating and self regulating
• Efficient.

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Issues in Postgraduate Education

• Breadth in discipline
• Mobility
• Career paths
• Professional training
• Interdisciplinary programmes
• Funding

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Breadth in the Discipline

• Thesis only PhD is norm in Ireland
• Graduate course work needed. WHY?
• Graduate qualifying examination?
• Need to coordinate across institutions to provide
  courses in small countries. (these have small
  disciplinary departments)
  

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Mobility

• Undergraduates do graduate degrees in same
  institution. (Irish problem?)
  
• International mobility
• Visas
• Funding eg Marie Curie Fellowships
• Language

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Career Paths

• Belief in academia that best/only position is in
  a University.
  
• How to encourage shift in attitude?
• Internships
• Professional training
• Use alumni working for industry
• Talks on entrepreneurship
• Industrial advisory committees

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Professional Training

• Industry looks for
• Knowledge in a discipline
• Problem solving skills
• Communication skills both oral and written
• Ability to work in a team
• Grant writing

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Interdisciplinary Programmes

• Poor sister in many cases compared to traditional
  disciplines.
  
• Often key to real world problems
• Can use central administration eg Graduate Dean
  to provide leadership and promote.
  
• BUT remember students need to be trained in depth
  in something
  

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Funding

• European vs US model.
• US Universities spend more per student by about a
  factor of 2. (22,000 vs 10,000 OECD average
  according to the Economist)
  
• OECD Report recommended Ireland charge fees to
  make up shortfall in funding. Politically
  unattractive.

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Summary

• Ireland has moved forward economically but
  intends to move more to knowledge based.
  
• SFI plays a key role in overall government
  strategy.
  
• Ireland needs to revamp graduate education to
  better promote and support a knowledge based
  economy.
  
• Important issues are breadth, mobility, career
  choices, professional training,
  interdisciplinarity and finances.
  

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Contact Information

• E-mail gary.crawley_at_sfi.ie
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]

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Industry Research Partnership Supplement

• To promote Academic Industry
  collaborations
  
• SFI-funded programmes already passed
  international peer review
  
• Directly related to enhance existing SFI
  programmes
  
• Support of up to 200,000 (up to 50k/year)
• Exchange of personnel (PhDs Post docs) and
  expertise between partners
  
• Review Criteria
• Benefits of the proposal to the existing
  programme, to the industrial partners, its
  strategic impact on Ireland will be reviewed by
  the Foundation

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SFI System

• Staff make final recommendations, not panels,
  including budget recommendations
  
• Recommendations are reviewed by Executive
  Committee of Directors at SFI
  
• Reviews (anonymous) and panel summaries are
  shared with applicants both for awards and
  declinations.
  
• Statistics and reviewers are published on SFI Web
  site.

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Funding Agency Requirements and Guidelines for
Managing Research-Generated Intellectual
Property.

• Promote common practice for IP management across
  funding agencies and Research Performing
  Orgainisations (RPOs).
  
• Strongly encourage RPO, Business and industry
  research partnerships and technology
  commercialisation.
  
• Support a consistent approach among RPOs for
  negotiating research and IP commercialisation
  agreements with any potential sponsors or
  collaborators.
• Establish readily understandable procedures and
  effective incentives for all the vital
  contributors to IP creation and
  commercialisation.
• Prepared by the Commercialisation Steering
  Committee, Feb 2006

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Speech by Mary Hanafin, Irish Minister for
Education and Science, 11 Dec 2005

• Creating capacity at fourth level is about
  having quality third level graduates capable of
  pursuing advanced post-graduate study and
  research and encouraging them to do this. This
  is essential to enhance Irelands international
  reputation as a knowledge hub

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OECD Economic Outlook