12th March 2025
Progress report outlines work underway to address regional innovation gaps and opportunities
The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke TD, today published the first Progress Report on Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy for Innovation 2022-2027.
The Minister said:
“I am pleased to publish this first progress update on Smart Specialisation which reports on important initiatives that will strengthen regional enterprise and innovation, including investment in our technological universities, our knowledge transfer facilities, and our innovators of tomorrow in areas such as cybersecurity and digital health.
Our Smart Specialisation Strategy is about ensuring that Ireland’s regions are innovative and sustainable and playing to their strengths, laying the foundations for future enterprise growth. The strategy has helped to target our European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) programmes towards strengthening our regions’ innovation capacity.”
Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy for Innovation is led by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE), working with other government departments and agencies at national, regional and local level.
With the support of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and exchequer match funding, Ireland has successfully launched smart specialisation initiatives to accelerate digital transformation, green innovation, and industry-academic collaboration over the coming years, that will reinforce our position as a European leader in research and development, as well as support regional and national economic competitiveness. Outlined in the progress report are updates on:
- Launch of the Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme (SREIS): that will invest in enterprise infrastructures and programmes aligned with regional strengths, in particular those areas identified as priorities in the Regional Enterprise Plans.
- Strengthening Ireland’s R&D Capacity: the Knowledge Transfer (KT) Boost programme will enhance research collaboration between technological universities and industry, leading to spin-out companies and new commercial innovations.
- Developing Future Skills for Innovation: the Research Ireland Accelerating Research to Commercialisation (ARC) Hub Programme and Enterprise Ireland’s Innovators’ Initiative are nurturing the next generation of skilled entrepreneurs, researchers, and technology leaders in important sectors for Ireland.
- Ireland’s Regional Innovation Valleys Designation: in June 2024, Ireland’s three NUTS 2 regions were designated as Regional Innovation Valleys, joining a European network focused on strengthening collaboration between high-performing and emerging innovation regions.
- The Smart Specialisation National Implementation Group, established in December 2022, oversees the alignment of regional strategies with national and EU policies, ensuring that innovation reaches all corners of the country.
- A Smart Specialisation data ‘Dashboard’ to track regional innovation performance, has been developed by the Eastern and Midlands Regional Assembly and the All-Island Research Observatory at Maynooth University, with input from the National Smart Specialisation Implementation Group and DETE. The dashboard was recently launched by Minister Burke at an Association of Irish Regions Training event in Athlone.
The Regional Assemblies are Managing Authorities for €853 million of ERDF and Irish Government co-funding that underpins key investments under the Smart Specialisation Strategy across several programmes administered by Enterprise Ireland and Research Ireland.
Director of the Northern and Western Regional Assembly Denis Kelly said:
“Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy continues to strengthen the alignment between regional and national innovation efforts, tackling the country’s research, development, and innovation (RD&I) challenges. This integrated approach is putting research and innovation (R&I) at the forefront of addressing the social, economic, and environmental challenges not only within the NWRA region but across Ireland as a whole.
Director of the Southern Regional Assembly David Kelly said:
“The Southern Regional Assembly welcomes the publication of the S3 progress report. Smart Specialisation is a crucial policy to support the regional innovation ecosystem and by aligning ERDF investments and supports we will ensure that the Southern Region continues to focus on its strengths, embracing the green transition whilst remaining competitive and strong.”
Director of the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly Clare Bannon said:
"As we navigate an increasingly fast-paced and unpredictable world, it is critical that research and innovation drivers in the Eastern and Midlands Region are supported by policies like the Smart Specialisation Strategy. These efforts ensure that the region can reach its full potential, contributing meaningfully at national, European and global levels.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
Smart Specialisation
Smart Specialisation is a policy approach promoted by the European Commission to boost regional innovation and to overcome barriers to innovation diffusion across regions so that economic potential is realised. It is based on the idea of building on regional strengths and potential competitive advantages. The Strategy proposes policy interventions nationally and regionally to address barriers to innovation diffusion, strengthen regional R&I capacity, enable the digital and green transition, drive international collaboration on R&I, and help ensure regional and national economic potential is realised.
The development of a Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) is a requirement for EU Member States to access ERDF structural funding for 2022-2027 programming period, under Policy Objective 1 – ‘A Smarter Europe’, worth €396 million of European funding to Ireland.
Stakeholder engagement and analysis conducted for the strategy identified regional economic and research strengths and emerging areas of opportunity. Many sectors, such as ICT, pharmaceuticals, agrifood and the renewable energy sector were identified as strengths across the country.
Regional innovation programmes supported by ERDF and government co-funding, and coordinated through the Smart Specialisation Strategy Implementation Group:
- Smart Regions Enterprise Innovation Scheme is aimed at accelerating economic growth and Smart Specialisation in all regions by working with stakeholders to create a supportive ecosystem around regional enterprise strengths and emerging areas of potential, with particular regard to the areas of opportunity outlined in the REPs.
- KT Boost provides resources and support to Innovation Offices/Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) in HEIs across Ireland, to drive knowledge and technology transfer to industry, and the creation of spin-out companies from academic research. The total budget for supports available for the four-year programme is €33.4 million.
- EI’s Technology Gateway Network focuses on key technology areas aligned to industry needs in areas such as polymers, photonics, coatings, industrial design, mechatronics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, wireless technologies and precision engineering. The 17 Gateways are dispersed regionally, operating through the Technological Universities. The Gateways will be receiving €47 million.
- The Innovators’ Initiative develops a series of immersive, needs-led innovation training programmes which will create cohorts of highly skilled innovators who can identify unmet market needs within specific sectors of growth. Each of the four education and training programmes under EI’s Innovators’ Initiative will receive €7 million in funding over a seven-year period.
- TU RISE scheme assists higher education institutions (HEIs) in the technological sector to build and increase research capacity and human capital with a focus on enhancing engagement with regional enterprises. By February 2024, nearly €84 million was competitively awarded to eligible HEIs across Ireland.
- The Research Ireland ARC Hub Programme aims to drive regional development through a network of three hubs, each working to optimise the translation of academic research to create new products, processes and services and to train and develop entrepreneurial scientists and engineers who are primed from an early stage to exploit the commercial potential of their research endeavours. On 12 February 2025 the first two hubs– the ARC Hub for Therapeutics and the ARC Hub for ICT – were established with a combined budget of €63.84 million.
Regional Development Monitor
The Regional Development Monitor (RDM), which was launched in November 2022, is a publicly accessible data website that provides a national mapping and visualisation tool with a range of analytics dashboards, designed to enhance understanding of key societal trends in Ireland to aid better decision making and is the biggest open-source data hub in the State.
The RDM is a collaborative project between the three Regional Assemblies in Ireland, the All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO) at Maynooth University and spatial infrastructure partners the Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSI) via the GeoHive platform.
A Smart Specialisation data dashboard to track regional innovation performance, has recently been incorporated into the RDM by the Eastern and Midlands Regional Assembly and the All-Island Research Observatory at Maynooth University, with input from the National Smart Specialisation Implementation Group and DETE. The dashboard was recently launched by Minister Burke at an Association of Irish Regions Training event in Athlone.
Read the progress report: Progress Report on the National Smart Specialisation Strategy for Innovation 2022-2027
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