Stimulating innovation
agendaNi assesses the Executive’s plans to encourage more R&D in business and academia and across government.
Published last September, Northern Ireland’s innovation strategy will run until 2025. It aims to grow employment in the knowledge economy from 33,370 jobs to 54,000 jobs, and also to boost R&D spend to £1.2 billion (compared to £624 million in 2012). The most recent figures for R&D cover 2013 and those for last year will be published in November.
The Executive has pledged to examine the feasibility of an innovation council, chaired by the Enterprise Minister and including representatives from business, the public sector and academia. This would give visible leadership for the strategy. Six medium-term targets are being used to measure progress up to 2020.
The work of the Public Sector Innovation Lab will continue e.g. through its task and finish groups. The Department of Justice has used the lab to set up ‘justice lunches’ which bring interest groups together to solve problems, and also to publish a policy toolkit which encourages officials to pilot new ideas and identify what works best.
A new communication strategy for innovation will be published and two accelerator programmes set up – in Belfast and the North West – to bring out new ideas from social innovators.
The strategy explains that knowledge must be generated, exchanged and exploited.
On the first point, R&D funding will be concentrated in the Economic Strategy’s priority sectors: advanced manufacturing and materials; agri-food technologies; ICT; life and health sciences; and sustainable energy. A research and technology capabilities study will consider the scope for more R&D in the public and private sectors.
Northern Ireland will also start a foresight programme to identify new and emerging technologies and key future markets for local companies. A ‘Creative NI’ framework will encourage more creativity and design-related thinking.
An open innovation centre (building on the work of the Northern Ireland Science Park) or a new support service could help companies to share best practice. The Executive will increase its investment in industry-led collaborative networks (especially in the priority sectors) and also in programmes and initiatives that support collaboration between businesses and academia.
A network of ‘contact point’ experts is helping local companies and other organisations to access funds from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. More information is available through the www.h2020ni.com portal and Northern Ireland’s target is to draw down
€145 million (£104 million) in total.
The new Start Planet NI ‘business accelerator’ programme (see box) will foster the growth of early stage high tech start-ups, including access to advice and relevant academics and a shared workforce with other similar companies. The open data strategy, published in February, will also help to exploit knowledge. The Executive will increase investment in the Small Business Research Initiative and support the expansion of the Northern Ireland Science Park.
One notable omission from the strategy is the devolution of corporation tax. The Executive supports the existing patent box scheme which applies a 10 per cent rate to R&D activities.
However, there is no discussion of the potential indirect benefits of reducing tax in general or how innovation can add to the attractiveness of a low tax environment.
Our R&D spend
Business: £482 million
Education: £147 million
Government: £16 million
Total: £645 million
Accelerating R&D
The Start Planet NI business accelerator envisaged in the strategy was launched in May and is based in Donegall Street. The project is supported by a £2.6 million contribution from Invest NI and is part of the Revolution brand of ‘co-working spaces’ being developed by Irish-American venture capital firm SOSventures.
Start Planet NI’s Programme Director, Wayne Murphy, has explained that its focus is on “entrepreneurs looking to transform their start-ups into high-value businesses.” He added: “We know how important partnerships can be and our pool of mentors will provide the participants with valuable coaching and connections to customers, partners and investors.”
Clients will receive intensive support over three months to help grow their business. Support will include connections to similar programmes in Cork, New York, San Francisco and Shenzhen – the main entry point into mainland China from Hong Kong.
Each ‘accelerator cohort’ will consist of a group of 8-10 small teams made up of 2-4 individuals. Participants will be recruited every year for up to five years. Around half of the recruits will be in local teams and the remainder will be in teams from outside Northern Ireland.
