from many other jurisdictions. This entrepreneurial
spirit has seen competitors identify mutual interests
to create joint-ventures. It has seen students identify
market opportunities and exploit them with the
assistance of multinational and government funding.
The innate curiosity of the Irish workforce makes
it naturally disposed to innovation and creativity.
Thus, the concept of “Open Innovation” is alive
and well in the Ireland of today.
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is one of the
nation’s most important facilitators of the “Open
Innovation” paradigm, as it is the body that funds
cutting-edge research, with a view to making
Ireland a “global knowledge leader”.
There are myriad examples of how industry-focused
academic projects that have received SFI funding
via Universities and Institutes of Technology, have
attracted the attention of multinational companies
that have supported, funded and participated in the
projects with a view to commercialisation. Ireland’s
well-reputed intellectual property laws have
facilitated this openly- innovative environment.
SFI is supporting over 500 research groups,
comprising over 3,000 researchers engaged in
high quality international peer reviewed research.
SFI oversees a multitude of initiatives that bring
industry and academia together over a vast spectrum
of areas. Many of these projects are found in SFI’s
Centres for Scientific, Engineering & Technology
(CSETs) and Strategic Research Clusters (SRCs).
SFI researchers are now engaged in over 600
academic-enterprise collaborations. In addition
academic-academic collaborations have increased to
1,967 (24% in Ireland, 32% rest of EU,
44% outside EU).
Director General of SFI, John Travers identified
the next phase of SFI as “one of continued progress,
where new opportunities are created and where
promising talent is unearthed and cultivated in our
Higher Education Institutions. Our endeavours in
attracting international researchers to our shores
and in promoting our domestic capabilities to a
global audience will also