Last Friday, I attended the early morning sessions of an Ireland R&D Showcase run by IDA Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland at Stanford University in Palo Alto.
As the title suggests, the day was intended to showcase Ireland as a leading research & development hub for the new technologies that will shape the 21st century.
Among the topics discussed were the key factors influencing countries’ competitiveness in this century and the commitment required to fund core R&D, if jobs are to be created and protected in the face of rising global competitiveness.
Last weekend, I watched Fareed Zakaria’s GPS program on How to restore the American Dream (link opens podcast) so I was well primed for the urgency of the main topics. (This, by the way, is a program well worth watching and I will return to it in my next blog. While you’re at it, read his recent article of the same title in Time magazine.)
Ireland, through the IDA, has done a very good job in the past 30 years of attracting large American corporations to establish their European hubs in the country. The incoming companies mirror the latest technology trends — the first wave brought global manufacturing companies like Siemens, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer; did you know that all the Viagra in the world is manufactured in Ireland?
Technology giants like HP, Microsoft, and Intel came next, followed by global players in the biotech and financial services sectors. Today, companies such as Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook all have a significant presence in Ireland.
The fierce urgency of a small country’s need to stay competitive drives the strategy and is largely unobstructed by the different political philosophies at home. I think it is a good example of what can be achieved across normal political divides and the short-term thinking that drives day-to-day politics in any country.
The overarching vision is held in a government policy document called the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-2013 (link opens PDF) which determines the direction and priorities. Two government agencies, backed by an array of state and private organizations, take the focus for implementing the policy decisions.
One agency, IDA Ireland, goes out to the global innovation centers and tries to attract the top companies to Ireland. A second agency, Enterprise Ireland, works in the opposite direction — connecting young and innovative Irish companies to the global markets.
It is a long-term approach which costs money and has to survive government change. I assume there is wastage in the system but it is impressive in its coherence and in its transparency.
So what were the key themes at the Ireland R&D Showcase? What jumped out for me was the central role of education. We are now moving into an era of highly complex and specialized research — nanotechnology, photonics, next-generation networks, cloud computing and so on.
Nations need to make the financial commitments to fundamental research on emerging technologies and knowledge domains. This research will drive the businesses and jobs of the future.
The next R&D wave is coming, and we all need to pay close attention to stay competitive. It has implications not just for countries but also for companies whose revenues depend on created intellectual property.
I was particularly impressed with the work of two research institutes attached to two Irish universities. One was CRANN, attached to Trinity College Dublin. This institute works across the research spectrum of nanotechnologies, from the development of new nanomaterials with improved mechanical, magnetic, electrical or optical properties to their subsequent application in electronic or medical devices, sensors, or new drug delivery systems.
The second was the Tyndall Institute, attached to University College Cork. The focus here is in the areas of photonics, electronics, and materials, as well as nanotechnologies, and their applications for life sciences, communications, power electronics and other industries. Both are world-class institutes, attracting top scientists from around the world and working closely with international market-leading companies to commercialize the latest research.
It was also impressive to me that Ireland, in the teeth of the biggest economic meltdown in the country’s history, was staying firmly focused on long-term success for its people.
