Foster outlines Government’s vision for an innovative economy

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster set out Government’s vision for an innovative, prosperous, economy, at the Science Park in Belfast, today.

The Minister was delivering the Government’s response to the report by MATRIX, which focused on how innovative, high-technology businesses can work collaboratively to exploit global market opportunities.

MATRIX, the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel, is a business led expert panel, formed to advise Government on the commercial exploitation of R&D and science and technology in Northern Ireland.

Announcing the cross-departmental response to the MATRIX recommendations, the purpose of which is to help facilitate high-tech businesses to stimulate greater collaboration and place ‘Industry-led Innovation Communities’ (IICs) at the heart of future economic planning, the Minister said: “This enhanced focus on collaborative networks, in the form of Industry-led Innovation Communities, represents an important shift in our economic thinking. It requires that we move towards an approach, which routinely encourages our companies, universities, FE colleges and other institutions for working together in more sustained and lasting partnership arrangements.”

Arlene Foster added: “As a result of our strong industrial past, we have always known that the only way for us to compete and increase our standard of living is to move rapidly into new high-technology, high value-added industries and secure our reputation for leading the world in key areas of science and technology. This Innovation Community approach will take this to a new level.”

The proposals put forward to support the development of IICs, include the establishment of a ‘Government Innovation Gateway,’ with a supporting online portal. In effect this means that Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI) and Invest Northern Ireland, along with other government organisations are committed to the creation of a “first stop shop to government support”, drawing together the miscellaneous strands of public support available into a single, easily navigable point of contact. By itself this should help cut down on the bureaucracy and red tape companies often face when they seek to enter into collaborative ventures.

Separately, and in recognition of their potential to contribute to a step-change in Northern Ireland’s economy, new, enhanced and more innovative means of delivering financial support will be explored to assist the emerging Innovation Communities, including new proposals for managing the dispersal of risk.

The Further Education Colleges, as well as DARD’s College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), will also be encouraged to align their support more effectively to the needs of Industry.

In addition, a new approach will be considered to make public procurement practices more 'innovation friendly', through a pilot scheme using public procurement as a stimulus to encourage the exploitation of new technologies.

The Minister said: “This suite of actions from Government should create the space in which industry can continue to drive forward a market-focused innovation agenda. Indeed, that change of emphasis is already well advanced and implementation of the MATRIX report is already under way.

“DETI and Invest NI are now providing innovative support to key Northern Ireland-based companies working in collaborative arrangements – notably through Invest NI’s Collaborative Networks Programme and the newly developed Centres of Competence Programme.”

The Minister continued: “New collaborative business opportunities are now being developed in areas such as Renewable Energy; Smart Grid Technologies; Composite Technologies; and Connected Health, with others also starting to break through.”

In conclusion Arlene Foster said: “Working together, with business leadership, government facilitation and academic inspiration, we can build a regional economy which can compete with, and beat, the very best in the world.”

Notes to editors:

1. Experience suggests that innovation is best implemented through a coherent joined-up innovation system – based on human networking which brings together research, business, and the intermediaries, to share knowledge, ideas and align mutual interests. An innovation community will have focused and clear market objectives and outcomes. It will involve inter-firm co-operation and the development of an ecosystem of firms, sharing technologies and trading intellectual property, within a given industry or across a number of relevant sectors.
2. A cross-departmental group of senior officials was established under DETI leadership to develop and oversee the creation of new support systems to implement the MATRIX proposals as well as unblocking impediments identified by the IICs. As well as DETI the other participating departments are DARD, DEL, DOE, DE, DHSSPS and DFP. Executive agencies and delivery bodies of the relevant departments were also represented, including Invest NI, InterTradeIreland, the Agrifood and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), the Health & Social Care R&D Office and the (DE) Schools Inspectorate.
3. MATRIX, which brings together experts with a proven track record in the commercial exploitation of science, technology and R&D, is supported by a secretariat based within DETI and it has been financed under the Skills and Science Fund and the Fund for Innovation. For more information on MATRIX, please visit the MATRIX website.
4. For media enquiries, please contact DETI Press Office on 028 9052 9297. Outside office hours, please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.