The Irish business Research and Development landscape is dominated by foreign multinationals, which account for over two-thirds of the total Business Expenditure on R&D (BERD) according to a new report.

Figures released last week are from the latest report from the European Commission's Research and Innovation Observatory (RIO).

The report finds that the Irish business R&D landscape relies on the predominance of foreign owned enterprises, which accounted for 65% of all R&D expenditure.

Irish R&D intensity, equated as ‘expenditure on R&D divided by sales’, for 2014 was 1.52%, below the Europe2020 target of 2.0%.

Business expenditure in Research and Development reached €2.107m in 2014, whilst governmental spending reached €726.8m.

The three major recipients of governmental R&D funding, the Higher Education Authority, Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland accounted for €459.2m of total State investment in R&D in 2014, the equivalent of just over 63%.

The European Commission's RIO report looks at each Member State's national R&D systems and identifies key challenges for research and development.

The report finds that "Ireland has been severely hit by the economic crisis, with dramatic repercussions on its public finances. This led to the agreement with EC, ECB and IMF upon an Economic Adjustment Programme which included a joint financing package of €85b covering the period 2010-2013. After successfully exiting the Programme in December 2013, the Government has sought to maintain the reform momentum to achieve the goals of creating more jobs to enhance living standards and ultimately to achieve full employment.”

“Thanks to the strategic sustained investment in R&D of the last decade Ireland has been able to join the top 20 countries for scientific output and scores remarkably well in a number of innovation output indicators."
 
Source: www.businessworld.ie