Speaking at the EU Digital Agenda Assembly in Dublin Castle this morning, NDRC CEO Ben Hurley (pictured) said that jobs and growth must be central to investments in research and innovation, and that the real world experience brought together at the Assembly will help form policies designed to best achieve this.
The EU Digital Agenda Assembly takes place today and tomorrow and is one of the major events of Ireland’s EU Presidency where over 600 delegates from across the civil and private spheres come together to plot the next steps in the EU’s Digital Agenda. Today’s events consisted of workshops across seven key areas with Hurley chairing the workshop: Translating research and innovation into jobs and growth.
The workshop – subtitled Digital innovation in the market place: how can we win the race? – included panel debates throughout the day with panellists shedding light on crucial ingredients of the innovation process and how innovation is a driver of economic growth.
Speaking as he moderated the workshop, Hurley said it can no longer be merely aspirational that investments into research and innovation result in jobs and growth.
"Jobs and growth are not the output of research and innovation, they must be a consequence of research and innovation that has been successfully transformed into something of market-ready utility. In other words, growth can be driven by the correct policies that aid research commercialisation," he said.
"NDRC is deeply involved in maximising the positive economic impact of investments in innovation but we know that during the lifecycle of a concept from its research phase to its market deployment phase, it is the transformation step that is probably the most uncertain and high risk. Only 1 in 10 ventures succeed, which is in contrast with earlier research phases (where even a negative outcome can rightly be considered a success, because it enhances understanding) and the later commercial investment stages (where the risk has been sufficiently reduced to match commercial expectations). This highlights the necessity in pursuing policies which best aid the commercialisation process."
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers