The new €99 million Science Foundation Ireland Accelerating Research to Commercialisation (ARC) Hub Programme is aimed at developing a new model for regional innovation and entrepreneurial training that will catalyse a step-change in the translation of cutting-edge, publicly funded research towards impact at a regional level.
The programme will see the establishment of up to three regional SFI ARC Hubs focused on specific thematic areas that will be aligned with the respective regional strategic priorities and the Government’s National Smart Specialisation Strategy for Innovation 2022-2027, otherwise known as S3.
These thematic research areas will include advanced manufacturing and engineering, agri-food and agritech, ICT, life sciences, renewable energy, climate change mitigation, fintech, automotive and aerospace.
Each hub will operate as a distributed consortium of research bodies and will be expected to create regional ecosystems focused on optimising research translation and training future entrepreneurs through establishing new academic networks and bringing together stakeholders, while leveraging existing supports, as appropriate, to deliver transformative new products, processes and services to market.
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“We have been looking at this for quite a while and have just launched the programme,” says SFI head of enterprise partnerships, Dr Aisling McEvoy. “We want to establish a new model for innovative, entrepreneurial research that will catalyse regional impact. That’s why it’s important for the hubs to be located in the regions. One of the main aims is to boost agile innovation, to contribute to growth and prosperity in the regions. The focus is on regional economic and research strength.”
Promoting cohesion
The programme is co-funded by the Irish Government and the European Union under two European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Regional Programmes: the Southern, Eastern and Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027 and the Northern and Western Regional Programme 2021-2027.
“That co-funding is vitally important,” McEvoy points out. “The programme is of strategic importance to the regions and the ERDF aims to promote cohesion across all European regions.”
Commercial impact is at the heart of the programme. The aim is to take novel, cutting-edge research and accelerate it on its commercialisation journey. While supporting the research on the one hand, the hubs will provide training to develop a cohort of entrepreneurial scientists and engineers with the skills to realise the commercial opportunities from research activities. This will support the translation of research to real-world applications with commercial potential.
“Research and commercialisation activities will be supported by an operations team in each hub,” McEvoy explains. “The teams will actively manage each research project.”
The teams will undertake activities such as agile project management, administration, scouting and business development, marketing, promotion of ARC Hub and communications. “Their active and expert management of the research portfolio will ensure that projects are shaped for success from the earliest stages of the R&D pathway,” McEvoy adds. “They will help the researchers to plan for success. They will think about commercial aspects that researchers don’t necessarily think about at the outset – things like the market and the customer and what they want and need. There will also be a future-proofing aspect to it. They will make sure all aspects are considered to make sure the projects are fit for the programme and improve their chances of success in the market.”
Rapid commercial impact
“Each hub will also have its own translational reach budgets that will be used to support researchers with novel research ideas that can be accelerated towards rapid commercial impact,” says McEvoy. “In some cases, a research project may receive follow-on funding if it is required to bring it closer to commercialisation.”
The aim is not necessarily to have market-ready products or services emerging from the hubs but to assist their progress on the commercialisation journey to a point where they will be able to attract funding from different sources.
“The hubs will help the research projects transition into other existing national closer-to-market supports such as the Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund,” says McEvoy. “We are not reinventing the wheel. We want to leverage the other supports in the research and innovation ecosystem. That includes funding sources as well as SFI Research Centres, technology transfer offices, technology centres and technology gateways. Hopefully they will get to a stage where they can pick and choose from the broader funding landscape.”
The programme is open to researchers at all stages of their careers. “It is open to people who have just completed their PhD who might have a great idea for a project that could have commercial impact, and to very experienced researchers,” she explains. “The researchers will be able to go to the hubs where they can pitch for their ideas to receive funding. Ireland is a really good, well-connected place. We are hoping that researchers will connect with each other and other research-performing organisations to come up with new ideas.”