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Orla Murray, SON Photographic
community environment. These have included The Ludgate Hub, a 10,000 sq ft co-working space with high-speed connectivity which is having a transformational effect on Skibbereen and surrounding areas and Galway City Innovation District, which secured REDF funding to provide a second building incorporating co-working space and is aiming to support 780 jobs directly and indirectly. Sinnamon highlights that in specific regions there has been significant investment in some really interesting collaborative projects under the Powering the Regions strategy. Expected to be fully operational by May 2021, the Bioconnect Innovation Centre in Co Monaghan is one of these. “This project is really great. It involves a number of companies such as Monaghan Mushrooms and academic partners coming together to establish a research centre to support the future growth of the bioeconomy,” she says. There is also the community-driven Irish Bioeconomy Project at Lisheen Mine, Co Tipperary where big players are working together to promote the conversion of natural land and sea resources into high-value products. “We are prioritising region by region what we believe will have the biggest impact in maximising the potential of those regions,” says Sinnamon. “There is a bigger appetite today for companies to look outside Dublin. One of the things we have focused on is encouraging companies to set up second sites in regional locations. Once you can point to successes, others will follow.” A recent example of this in action is Kilkenny-based Carne Group, which is creating 50 jobs at its new financial services centre in Wexford. Last July, Enterprise Ireland announced the launch of the a8.25m Regional Technology Clustering Fund, which is focused on small businesses engaging with institutes of technology and technical universities. “An OECD report highlighted that Ireland is not as developed on the clustering side as it needs to be. The
Julie Sinnamon, CEO, Enterprise Ireland
GOING FORWARD OUR STRATEGY IN THIS AREA WILL HAVE MORE EMPHASIS ON THE IMPACT OF R&D – IN OTHER WORDS THE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES THAT COME OUT OF IT – TO ENSURE THE BEST RETURN ON INVESTMENT FOR BOTH ENTERPRISE IRELAND AND INDIVIDUAL COMPANIES. Innovation Voucher scheme was a first step towards small companies accessing what’s available to them in institutes of technology for specific projects,” Sinnamon explains. “It has been really successful in terms of opening doors. But what we are now trying to do is connect more companies with each other with the commitment of the institutes of technology behind them.” R&D AND INNOVATION With the pace of technological change accelerating, Enterprise Ireland has a specific focus at the moment on trying to increase the spend on research and development (R&D) by companies themselves. “Overall investment in R&D by Enterprise Ireland client companies increased by 5.6% to a970m in 2018, but stronger growth is required to reach our 2020 target for companies to spend a1.25bn on R&D,” says Sinnamon. “Going forward our strategy in this area will have more emphasis on the impact of R&D – in other words the products and services that come out of InBUSINESS | WINTER 2019
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