This is a blog response to the debate on Fred’s IP and Competition Law Blog.

SFI (and other) funding has gone into some fundamental scientific fields that are going to be important in the future. The thing to realise is that research drives one main output; more research, You find something cool, you look at it more. That is needed and Ireland has been lacking in recent times so good to see some investment. This is not really enough on it’s own though to realise a return on the investment.

Can you get a return on that investment ?

When ?

Let’s pick for example Nanotech. Most people would agree that this is a key area with a high potential to revolutionize the world. (Unfortunatley, most people get that insight from Star Trek and would be a bit wary if them met a nanite.) Also unfortunately is the fact that you can’t look forward in time and see when, or in what field the returns will be made first. It is a race where you might not finish first or at all.

Ferdinand von Prondzynski, from DCU, has written in his Blog about the need to be single minded about our need for research and innovation. To a point I agree. The policy of investment should continue in high value areas. There must also be a viable environment that can take on this new knowledge and ultimately help support the funding of the research.

What is needed is more of the resources that enable the conversion of IP and new knowledge to products, services and ultimately value.

Fred on his blog argues:

…would we not be better served licensing in technology and know-how from around the globe to become system-integrators? How about using our relatively small size to become a location of rpilot studies for new products and processess?

Good Idea from the perspective of  building innovation and commercialisation muscle that we will need when the investments in fundamental research are ripe. This all cannot be regarded as a serial process, We have to build and cultivate at every stage. Fundamental research is an important investment, but will not bear fruit in the short term. Integrators, innovators and businesses should be developed in the same areas to provide a future market for those ideas. This will enable the return on investment to be realised in the Irish economy.

It would be unrealistic to expect that researchers being spun off into companies would be solely enough. Larger corporations will have the resources to licence in IP to build their portfolios. This is the reality that the Open Innovation ethos drives. A good question to ask is whether there will be Irish companies who and build and exploit IP portfolios in these technological areas that we are investing R&D money into and whether they can grow and scale to make returns.

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