Leyton Ireland - Irish Companies Must Take Advantage of R&D Funding on Offer

Irish Companies Must Take Advantage of R&D Funding on Offer

22/07/2010

Irish Companies Must Take Advantage of R&D Funding on Offer

The Irish Government’s ambition to make Ireland one of the worlds’ leading locations for Research and Development (R&D) activity is now gathering serious local and international momentum.

The Government has identified Research & Development activities, and the resultant positive impact on skills and employment, is vital to ensuring future Irish economic growth and fiscal expansion.

In recent years Ireland has punched well above its weight in attracting both domestic and foreign direct investment in this area. Since 2007, Irish research institutions, educational bodies and private companies have secured in excess of €213m in funding from the Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7). This significant & very material return is firm evidence of a continued effort at Government and State body level (Enterprise Ireland & IDA) in terms of promotion and directed activity in this regard.

The current Irish EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation & Science Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn explained in her recent FP7 funding report: “In the period from commencement of FP7 to April 2010, 2,965 applicants from Irish-based organisations took part in proposal submissions requesting European funding. From these proposals, 720 applicants were successful, receiving €213m, giving an overall Irish success rate of 24.28pc, above the European Member State average of 22.28pc. The Irish success rates ahead of the overall EU average are very positive indications of the prospects for Irish participation in FP7 and are ahead of our national targets.

The activities at Ministerial and State body level really have to be applauded in this area. It is almost not politically correct to be showering praise on our current government at present. However, in this area, it is the view of many of our clients at Leyton, that a very real and recognisable bounce has been felt since mid 2009 in terms of quantifiable activities in attracting, and more importantly securing, quality high tech R&D to Ireland. The inevitable result in this regard will be an increase in high value skilled employment in this area.

Companies who are well informed on the financial and administrative assistance available at a local, national and international level will, in my view, fair best in achieving some measure of stability and economic growth in the medium to long term. For companies engaging in qualifying R&D activities in the Irish state, there now exists a wealth of invaluable and very material benefits from which cash expenditure refunds, Corporate Tax credits and pre expenditure grant aid may be secured. It is certainly not unusual to see qualifying companies making use of all of the aforementioned assistance in any one account period, but very often the perception is that suitably qualifying R&D activities in this regard must include white coated engineers and clean room type environmental activities, and it is this perception that is leaving very many potentially qualifying companies in the dark and losing out on valuable cash flow savings.

In recent days EU Commissioner Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn announced Europe’s largest ever funding investment in research and innovation and on July 20th more than 50 calls for research proposals will be issued. There will be something of potential interest to all types of companies in Ireland, regardless of where they are in terms of R&D capability.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen has also promised his own €500m Innovation Fund for Ireland. This fund aims to support enterprise development and job creation and is viewed by Mr Cowen as the “key pillar” of the Government’s Smart Economy strategy.

"We have a clear vision of what we want to achieve for Ireland and we are building on a range of policies introduced to make Ireland a thriving centre for business development and employment creation. Innovation Fund Ireland is a key initiative to make this happen”, the Minister says.

Many of our clients at Leyton from the SMEs to large international corporations, have engaged in historic long standing high tech “standard trading activities”, and could potentially have been making important fiscal savings in this area since their introduction in 2004. I would remind companies interested in capturing the most value from their trading activities that our current client listing at Leyton includes Food, Dairy and Meat Processors, Financial Institutions, Electronic Engineering Firms, Software and Computer Gaming Houses, Medical Equipment and Process Manufacturers, Mechanical Engineers, Large scale manufacturers and processors – the list is endless.

To read further recent comments from EU Commissioner Mrs Maire Geoghegan Quinn on this topic, click on the link below:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0720/1224275075249.html
(thanks to the Irish Times for this article)

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