Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey has outlined the role of the new National Digital Research Centre which is being established in the Digital Hub in Dublin, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Lessons have been learned since the closure of the failed MediaLab Europe research centre formerly based in Dublin's Digital Hub. Its replacement faces challenging times as it seeks to build up our national digital research effort.
The new National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) starts with a clean sheet and €25 million in funding from three Government Departments, led by the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources and its Minister, Noel Dempsey.
And while its address remains at the Digital Hub close by the Guinness Brewery complex, its agenda couldn't be more different that MediaLab Europe's, Mr Dempsey says.
MLE had a free-ranging research approach but the new NDRC has a tough list of "deliverables" including set numbers of research projects, graduate and post doctoral projects, targets for support from industry and more.
Despite the €35 million expended on MLE, Mr Dempsey rejects the notion that it was a mistake. "MediaLab Europe wasn't a mistake in the context of its time," he says.
"It was a brilliant concept but circumstances changed. The only mistake we made was we didn't adjust quickly enough to those changing circumstances."
Things will be different with the NDRC, however. "It is a semi-State body. It is a legal entity, funded with €25 million over the next five years." This sum does not include any funding contributed by industry or the universities or generated through its research, Mr Dempsey adds.
"It will focus on digital research that can transfer into products and be licensed as intellectual property."
The contract to run the NDRC was signed 12 months ago with the "Liberty" consortium. Members include University College Dublin, Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin, along with the National College of Art and Design and the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
Its role is to develop research activity in the general information and communications technology sector, but the NDRC has been given a very specific list of deliverables, the minister says. "This is a service level agreement between Liberty and the Department."
Key deliverables by end of year five include:
- 27 full research projects with industry partners
- 110 research evaluation projects with industry partners
- €1.2 million in industry support
- €20 million commercial investment in products/services coming from NDRC research
- 24 international patents
- a research team of 100
- 42 PhD internships
- 21 engineering doctoral graduates
- €330,000 of licensing income
"It gives them specific targets and makes it easier for us to measure outputs. It is a discipline for them as well," Mr Dempsey says. "I hope people are going to see these as minimums."
The NDRC should also provide a research and innovation focus for companies based at the Digital Hub, providing immediate spin-off potential for discoveries made by the Centre's research team.
It would be for the newly appointed ceo and programme manager to decide on structures applied to the NDRC, the minister added. They will have the money, the space and the facilities, giving the new Centre the best possible start.