3rd Interim Report of Irish Involvement in FP7

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3rd Interim Report of Irish Involvement in FP7
IUA, Brussels 25 May 2009
imelda.lambkin_at_enterprise-ireland.com
353-1-727 2665http//www.fp7ireland.com
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FP7 - to set the scene

• A new larger coordinated National Support Network
  resourced by 12 organisations
• A new and ambitious target of 600 million as
  part of SSTI
• An international approach to FP7 support

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Irelands performance in FP7 2007-2008
Jan 2007 to Dec 2008 incl. Marie Curie Funding
of 17.9M based on some contracts signed and
estimate pre-contract finalisation All figures
will need to be verified post confirmation of
individual contract award amounts by the European
Commission
A strong performance in keeping with our target
of 600m for FP7
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Ireland versus other countries
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ICT, health, nanotech and People account for 63
of the funding The gap between ICT and health
is widening
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Higher Education remains the primary beneficiary
with 55 of the funding
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Higher Education Institution Performance in FP7
In terms of funding TCD continue to lead the
field, WIT shows IoTs how its done and UL is
punching above its weight
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And a first look at participation success rates
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Top ten proposals in terms of funding
And 11-20 UCC (2), NUIG (2), TCD (1), UCD (1)
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Take home messages

• Ireland has maintained a strong performance to
  date with participation in line with the
  ambitious national targets ( 107M 1.23)
• New data for Marie Curie reveals a healthy
  funding level (17.9M 2.05) - consistent with
  FP6
• Industry participation at 30 is substantially
  higher than that seen at the end stages of FP6 ,
  continuing as a sharp contrast to prevailing
  opinions of company FP phobias
• As economic conditions have deteriorated
  nationally (and internationally), FP7 comes into
  its own as a non-exchequer funding source budget
  stability is guaranteed to 2013 incredibly, in
  the current environment, the budget is growing
  year on year 2009 6bn 2010 7bn to 2013
  10bn

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Dispelling the myths

• Mopping up local funding has displaced FP
  activity
• Irelands take as a was stable from FP5 (pre
  2001) to FP6 (2002-2006)
• FP7 is very bureaucratic
• PRTLI and SFI application procedures have
  educated our researchers
• FP7 success rates are very low
• SFI 20 IRCSET 20 Ireland in FP7 23
• Irish companies dont know how to do it
• Use the companies as part of your
  commercialisation/industry linkage strategies
• FP7 is for researchers outside the PRTLI/SFI fold
• New FP7 evaluation criteria in SFI assessment
  process

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Day to Day Business of the Network

• General FP7 training 1061 attendees at 11 events
  to date
• Theme-specific info days gt3456 attendees at 78
  events
• Events showcasing Ireland abroad
• Multiple client-specific activities
• Financial supports

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Are we offering the right financial supports?
97 EI supports costing 1.65m to date - 5.8m
return
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Network review of large research performers

• Tyndall Institute
• Strong performance in FP7 but opportunities in
  broad range of areas outside ICT and NMP not
  considered in detail ICT participation of
  relatively low financial value
• Conway Institute
• Very little FP7 activity identified and
  opportunities in broad range of areas outside
  Health not considered in detail Some PI-specific
  uptake of Marie Curie
• Very low uptake of financial supports/training/eve
  nts
• Intel Ireland
• Strong performance in FP7 ICT with 12 success
  rate! Goal should be to coordinate projects Less
  successful in NMP Opportunities in broad range
  of areas (including Marie Curie) already being
  considered in detail

We need to coordinate network support to large
research performers they need to fit FP7
objectives to their strategic research agendas to
increase participation significantly
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Evolution of current FP7 approach towards
increasing our leverage of national investment by
optimising Irelands participation in FP7
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The Network mulled over

• Where do we want to position FP7? (funding as
  of Total Public RD Funding in FP6 was 7)
• Why is FP7 use not strategic? (PI-driven many
  opportunities ignored centres under-performing)
• Why are we leveraging national investments
  without using our clusters with bigger
  aspirations? Lack of understanding Little uptake
  of Joint Technology Initiatives by relevant
  centres
• Can we share information to challenge research
  funders and research centres more efficiently?
• Lack of shared and fully-informed approach SFI
  DERI has been very successful in FP7 with 7
  projects funded FP7 NSN DERI participation
  has been PI-driven rather than strategic, it is
  ad-hoc and varies widely in terms of ST quality
• ERC 127 applications from Ireland 2 Starter
  Grants in a very competitive environment
  Chemistry, Anaesthesiology - Who sees the FP7
  participation data and how do they use that
  information? Should we link FP7 success to
  funding decisions in national agencies?
• Mixed messages going out from Ireland recent
  Korea-Ireland Joint Commission SFI Ireland
  has prioritised Energy Korean Minister why
  is Energy so low in FP7?
• Marie Curie 2 Irish research funders (IRCSET
  Health Research Board) and RCSI successful in
  first Co-fund Call 40 funding by EC for the
  establishment of (or expansion of existing)
  national mobility-based fellowship schemes
  Maximum funding available per proposal of
  5million. How do we maximise use of next co-fund
  Call?

working with researchers, research centres
versus funders
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Pilot scheme for financial support for Strategic
Approaches to FP7 by Research Centres/Groups

• 24 applications - 5 research centres/groups
  funded to develop and implement 12 month
  strategic approaches to FP7 participation
• Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI),
  NUIG 100,000
• Tyndall National Institute 70,000
• National Centre for Sensor Research,
  DCU 100,000
• (includes BDI CBAS)
• Telecommunications Software Systems Group,
  WIT 100,000
• Teagasc 64,000

Aiming to establish an FP7 elite, to drive a
competitive local environment
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Providing real insight into Irelands potential
for scale up
weve got work to do
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Bringing FP7 closer to other funding mechanisms

• We have begun to Map FP7 and National Funding
  data to provide a knowledge base of the link
  between national priorities and investment, and
  Irelands FP7 activities
• Our thoughts
• (a) National Funders develop strategic approaches
  to how we target European funding, through
  leveraging the national investment
• And/OR
• (b) Higher Education Institutions develop
  strategic FP7 Targets

Building and evolving these strategies in an
informed way by using information provided
through the national-FP7 funding map
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Working with SFI a data merge

• 188 SFI clients applied for FP7 funding they
  accounted for 25 of all applications from
  Ireland 52 were successful with the majority
  in 1 proposal each, 9 in 2 proposals and 1 in 8
• Their success rate at 23.6 was the same as the
  overall Irish success rate (above EU average
  21.59)
• 18 (26.5) led successful proposals i.e.
  determining the research agenda (overall Irish
  34.6)
• Few are clustering together to use FP7 i.e. to
  use critical mass they have built locally
• 28 ERC applications - 1 Starter Grant

Moving on to FP7 reporting and evaluation
criteria with both SFI and HEA you will see new
requirements
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What next?

• Continuation of Phase II strategic/focused
  approach shifting emphasis from Phase I promotion
  (i.e. general increasing awareness)
• Completion of pilot financial support for
  Strategic Approaches to FP7 by Research
  Centres/Groups
• New metrics for FP7 National Support Network team
  focus on defining activities, levels of
  interaction with clients, impact of support
  system
• Circulation of 2009 Call results/financial
  support inputs in real-time to influence NCP
  approaches (and others)
• Irelands Success in FP7 June 30th at Royal
  College of Physicians
• 500 local invitees with web-cast to international
  networks
• Unique opportunity for interaction between e.g.
  CSET directors with MNC and SME

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The Network and the Research Offices

• Sporadic meetings to determine needs/updates on
  network activities
• Opening of fp7ireland extranet for behind the
  scenes activity inc. financial support
  approvals on a monthly basis
• Provision of aggregated statistics twice a year
  ad hoc data provided as needed (HEIs, centres,
  individuals)
• Inclusion in all training activities with the
  network (inc. latest FP7 Lobbying FP8 Approach
  updates with the Swedish ROs)

Need to coordinate NCP activity in HEIs better?
alignment of your reporting with ours? use of
strategic intelligence (key collaborators/competit
ors or areas of interest)?
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Irish share of all FP funding FP5 - 1.2
FP6 - 1.2 FP7
The FP7 opportunity is growing year on year
can we stay on target?