Excellence and Impact – An Overview of SFI Professor Mark Ferguson

1. Excellence and Impact – An Overview of SFI Professor Mark Ferguson Director General, SFI & Chief Scientific Adviser to Government of Ireland Research for Ireland’s Future

2. Science Foundation Ireland “SFI will build and strengthen scientific and engineering research and it’s infrastructure in the areas of greatest strategic value to Ireland’s long term competitiveness and development.” • Founded 12 years ago • > €1.5 billion committed to date

3. SFI Expenditure on R&D 2000 - 2012

4. What SFI actually does • Makes grants to Higher Education Institutes in Ireland • Based on competitive, international merit review for scientific excellence and impact • Trains people • Builds infrastructure • Produces scientific results and technology • Significant industrial linkages attracting, anchoring and starting companies • Leverages other research funding e.g. Industrial / EU / Charitable / Philanthropic • People & technology transfer to Industry & Society • Industry more competitive, better public services • Higher value products/services • Higher living standards

5. What do we currently get for our annual €150m? • A research ‘engine’ of 3000 people, led by 500 leading scientists • 28 clusters/centres of scale • 5740 scientific publications • 80 patent filings, 27 patents awarded • 39 licensed technologies • 10 spin out companies formed • 583 companies partaking in 1,035 collaborations • €156m in leveraged non-SFI funding

6. What has Ireland achieved on this platform? Building on the emerging technical foundation the Industrial base is transforming • Major growth in commercialisation outputs • R&D projects now represent half of all multinational investments (up from 10% just 5 years ago) Value of Exports* 2000 Year 2009 €38b €87b R&D Firms Non R&D Firms €18b €44b *Similar trend in value-added & employment

7. Job Links to SFI SFI is a key part of the enterprise ecosystem • From 1 January – 17 August 2012 • 61% of the companies who announced new jobs have some links to SFI funded researchers • SFI has connections to 3,975 of the 5,701 jobs announced by the IDA during this period

8. Key Government Reports

9. Public Expenditure on R&D (2011) by Funder Total: €919 million

10. SFI Agenda 2020Excellence and Impact 4 Strategic Objectives: • To be the best science funding agency in the world at creating impact from excellent research and demonstrating clear value for money invested • To be the exemplar in building partnerships that fund excellent science and drive it out into the market and society • To have the most engaged and scientifically informed public • To represent the ideal modern public service organisation, staffed in a lean and flexible manner, with efficient and effective management.

11. Programmes open in 2013i.e. calls running

12. Existing Programmes

13. SFI Investment in Energy Research (total funding to date) CCS = Carbon Capture & Storage Total investment in energy research to date ~€72.5m direct costs (approx. 60 active & 35 completed awards)

14. Industry Collaborations • 100 active academic-industry engagements with > 80 different companies • Industries represented include multi-nationals such as Intel, GE Energy, IBM and Arup, semi-state agencies such as BordnaMóna, BordGáis, ESB and Eirgrid, andSMEs such as SolarPrint Ltd. and Cylon Controls • United Technologies Corporation Research Centre (UTRC) – Energy & Security • International Energy Research Centre • Spinouts e.g. • Wattics Ltd – smarter metering for businesses • Crystal Energy Ltd – licensed, independent, innovative supplier of electricity for the Irish market – real time pricing tariffs to encourage load shifting towards more favourable times for increased grid efficiency and high renewable penetration

15. Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems (SEES) Strategic Research Cluster • Goal • To provide solutions that enable the development of an environmentally clean and efficient future electricity system. In particular, assessing the impact of key sustainability drivers: higher levels of renewables (in particular wind), distributed generation and flexible consumer demand. • Research Areas • Effects of variable wind generation on operation of other generators, transmission & distribution networks; integration of ocean energy; impact of electrical vehicles & other variable demand, evaluation of flexibility & optimisation of future portfolios • Director: Prof. Mark O’Malley, UCD • SFI Funding: €5.9m+ industry cost-share • International collaborations: Riso DTU, NREL, Durham University • Leveraged funding: EPRI, IBM http://erc.ucd.ie/sees/

16. Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems (SEES) Strategic Research Cluster Sources Loads SmartGrid Markets & Policy http://erc.ucd.ie/sees/

17. Hydraulic and Maritime Research Centre (HMRC) Goal • Contribute directly to national priorities for ocean energy sector development in two focus areas: ocean energy resource development and ocean energy device development Research Areas • Hydrodynamics and modelling for wave energy convertors (WECS); electrical issues for wave energy devices and farms; economic & socio-economic issues related to ocean energy development;law, policy and environmental aspects of ocean energy development Director: Prof. Tony Lewis, UCC SFI Funding: €3.5m Industry Linkages: Wavebob Ltd., Ocean Energy Ltd., Eirgrid; ESBI; Fleming Energy; MRIA (Marine Renewables Industry Association); OceanLinx; Cyan Energy; PMG Leveraged funding: EU-FP7 MARINET, CORES, MARINA, Equimar http://hmrc.ucc.ie/

18. SFI Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET) and Strategic Research Clusters (SRC) Designed to be ‘the sharp end’ of the ‘oriented basic research’ focus-key vehicle for enabling interactions between the academic and industrial base Key Objectives: Create centres formed by clusters of internationally competitive researchers from the third-level sector and industry – accelerate learning by collaboration Exploit opportunities in science, engineering, and technology where the complexity of the research agenda requires the advantages of scale, dynamism, and facilities that a centre can provide – create critical mass to compete globally Support highly organised, frontier investigations across disciplines that underpin the development and competitiveness of Ireland’s industrial base - create new science, new knowledge, new markets Promote organisational connections and linkages within and between campuses, industry, and international collaborators – create new connections, develop new opportunities • Result: Dramatic increase in number of companies engaged in R&D in Ireland • CSET: 117 MNCs, 107 SMEs – SRC:101 MNCs, 74 SMEs

19. Some examples CRANN Nanotechnology – materials and devices Global impact - Ireland #8 in Material Science, # 6 in nanotech 19 people hired by Intel in 2012 alone Biomedical Diagnostics Institute (BDI) Point of care diagnostic devices 17 patents & commercial licences to date MSc in Biomedical Diagnostics developed– 62 graduates, many going directly to industry Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) Interface between pharma and agri-food Ranked #1 in world in ‘probiotics’ research Translated research to market through Irish SME (Alimentary Health Ltd) Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) Largest ‘next gen. web’ research centre globally - Linking data for new insight Strong partnerships with local industry large companies smaller companies

20. SFI Centres Programme • Proposal within at least 1 research priority category • Excellence review for science and impact by 2 independent international panels • Core support (up to 20%) platform research (up to 30%) • Spokes • annual call • rolling call if >50% cash support from industry • Must have overall at least 30% of budget from industry with minimum of 10% overall budget in industry cash and mix of small and large companies • Centre structure assists: open evaluation / sustainability / flexibility / evolution with time

21. SFI Centres Programme – Highly Competitive and Industry Relevant • 120 Expressions of Interest • 35 pre-proposals • Leveraged from industry €92m cash and €163m in kind (total €255m) • 466 companies (multinationals and SME) • 11 full proposals solicited and submitted • Industry cash of €54.6m (13.5%, range 10 – 19%), in kind €93.7m (total industry contribution 36.5% (range 30 – 53%), 247 industrial collaborations. Direct SFI funding sought €258.2m • Decision early 2013 • SFI currently has budget to fund approximately 5 Centres • In the 2013 budget negotiations SFI continues to make a case for increased budget to allow the funding of more Centres

22. SFI researchers are involved in over 800 collaborations with over 500 companies. - Over 325 companies with legal agreements in place These collaborations are with both small and large, indigenous and external companies

23. SFI & EI Technology Innovation and Development Award (TIDA) • Designed to enable SFI-funded research groups to focus on the first steps of an applied research project which may have a commercial benefit if further developed. • Over €8M invested in last two years, in 86 awards • Reviewed by SFI, EI and International Commercialisation Experts • Success metrics include follow-on investment (non-SFI), IP development, Licenses, spin-out companies etc. • Post-doctoral training component – most promising candidates spend a week in Silicon Valley

24. Discover Science & Engineering Discover Primary Science • 4,000 teachers • 92% of primary schools • 500 Excellence Awards/yr • 300 additional teachers Second Level Science • 200 secondary schools • 25 tutor/facilitators Science Week (90,000 participants) - 100 partners (400 plus events) Partnerships e.g. STEPS to Engineering, Intel – “Scifest”) Smart Futures – Engaging Enterprise directly

25. www.sfi.ie emailinfo@sfi.ie tel +353 1 607 3200 Research for Ireland’s Future