Improving Technology Transfer and Research Commercialisation in the Irish Food Innovation System

End of project reportThe process by which knowledge generated by publicly-funded research is transferred to industry – technology transfer – has been criticised as being inefficient and having limited success. This research project aimed to obtain a better understanding of the technology transfer process and thereby contribute to policy development and provide guidance for researchers to improve the process. Through a series of focus groups, surveys, case studies and depth interviews, the research identified five key challenges that exist in the context of the Irish food innovation system. These relate to communication, industry capabilities, research capabilities, strategic management and socialisation. To address these challenges, a selection of tools, illustrative case studies and recommendations for a range of stakeholders on how to deal with each of these challenges is provided on the project website (www.dit.ie/toolbox/)

Interactions in Ireland's Food Innovation System

This paper presents an analysis of the Irish food innovation system. The research was conducted as part of a larger project aimed at developing a research commercialisation toolbox to assist public research organisations and universities improve technology transfer and commercialisation of publicly funded food research. Ireland’s food innovation system (FIS) is discussed for the first time to identify key actors, agencies and knowledge flows that contribute to food innovation nationally. Following a section in which a FIS is defined, an overview of the food industry and its research activities are presented to provide context for the current research and the discussion that follows. The methodology adopted for this research is then outlined with identification and discussion of the key actors in the FIS the focus of the next section. The main findings of the research are then presented, followed by conclusions and an outline of future research to be conducted on the Irish FIS.Agribusiness, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Technology Transfer in the Irish Food Industry: Researcher Perspectives

The public R&D system represents an important part of the framework conditions for carrying out innovation activities and creating commercially applicable knowledge (Drejer and Jørgensen, 2004). It is an important source of information for companies, particularly those that are developing new products (Tijssen, 2004). However, Rubenstein (2003) stated that there has been a perception that public research capacity and results were not being optimally used and thus that potential economic benefits were not entirely realised. It is also suggested that research conducted in the public sector is not efficiently or successfully transferred to industry (Markman et al, 1999) and that it is necessary to understand and improve the means of technology transfer for society to reap the benefits of public science (Geuna and Nesta, 2003). Thus, there is a growing interest, and indeed pressure, among policymakers and academics to ensure informed spending of taxpayers’ money, that useful and relevant research is conducted that represents good “value for money” and that wealth is generated from publicly-funded research (Carr, 1992; Lyall et al., 2004; Mustar et al., 2006). To achieve this requires, amongst other things, the establishment of scientific and technical human capital which is the sum of researchers’ professional network ties and their technical skills and resources (Bozeman and Coreley, 2004). This paper examines the interactions engaged in by researchers from Irish public science providers (public research centres and higher education institutions), with a particular focus on researchers- industry interactions, as well as their skills and resources. To provide context, it firstly briefly outlines the actors involved in conducting publicly funded R&D in Ireland. It then describes the methodology and presents the results of a national survey of publicly funded food researchers focusing on the extent and nature of researcher interactions with other researchers and with industry, the barriers to and motivations for researcher-industry interaction and researcher skills regarding technology transfer. It concludes with a discussion and some policy recommendations.Agribusiness, Agricultural and Food Policy, Farm Management, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Industrial Organization,

Knowledge Transfer in the Irish Food Innovation System: Industry and Researcher Perspectives

The new EU Animal Health Strategy suggests a shift in emphasis away from control towards prevention and surveillance activities for the management of threats to animal health. The optimal combination of these actions will differ among diseases and depend on largely unknown and uncertain costs and benefits. This paper reports an empirical investigation of this issue for the case of Avian Influenza. The results suggest that the optimal combination of actions will be dependent on the objective of the decision maker and that conflict exists between an optimal strategy which minimises costs to the government and one which maximises producer profits or minimises negative effects on human health. From the perspective of minimising the effects on human health, prevention appears preferable to cure but the case is less clear for other objectives.Knowledge transfer, technology transfer, Irish food sector, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Managerial challenges of publicly funded principal investigators

Principal investigators (PI) are at the nexus of university business collaborations through their leadership of funded research grants. In fulfilling their multiple roles, PIs are involved in a range of different activities, from direct scientific supervision of junior scientists, the organisation of new scientific avenues to engaging with industrial partners. With the increased impetus for public research to produce wealth through science commercialisation, research is increasingly orchestrated through programmes which seek to connect research avenues and markets. The role of PIs is of growing importance. The extent of managerial challenges encountered by scientists in the context of their PI role has not been the focus of any empirical studies. This paper examines the managerial challenges experienced by publicly funded PIs. Our study, set in the context of the Irish research system, found three foci of PI managerial challenges – project management, project adaptability and project network management

Written evidence for Parliament: “Mental health in schools.”

Evidence published as part of the House of Commons Health Committee Inquiry on Children and young people's mental health—the role of education

Sea bass angling in Ireland: A structural equation model of catch and effort. ESRI WP574, November 2017

The relationship between angling effort and catch is well-recognised, in particular that effort influences catch rates. But increased catch, which can be considered an attribute of fishery quality, may influence effort in terms of number of fishing trips. This suggests bi-directional feedback between catch and effort. In many travel cost applications little attention has been given to this endogeneity problem. In this paper we expand the application of structural equation models to address this issue by jointly estimating demand (effort) and catch functions. Using a cross-section dataset of sea bass anglers we propose two separate joint models. First, we include expected catch as an explanatory variable in the demand equation. In the second, we reverse the causality and use the expected number of fishing days as a covariate in the catch function. The two approaches produce similar model estimates, and perform better at predicting anglers' catch and effort than standard models. The findings confirm that ‘catch & release’ does not curtail fishing activity and that sea bass angling is highly valued. Furthermore higher catches result more days fished, on average in a 2:1 ratio. Whereas on average, an additional fishing day results in 3-4 additional bass caught

Anglers' views on stock conservation: Sea Bass angling in Ireland. ESRI WP578, December 2017

Bottom-up approaches to natural resource management are considered to be more effective for conservation than traditional top-down approaches because the policy-making process is legitimized by stakeholders. In particular, when decisions are shared with direct users of the resource, compliance with the law may be achieved more easily and potential sources of conflict averted. However, empirical evidence on this topic is still limited. In this paper, we investigate how recreational anglers perceive stricter legislation for sea bass fishing, using Ireland as a case study. The new legislation aims to limit harvest rates to restore a viable bass population following years of declining stocks. Data were collected by means of an angler survey and analysed with a seemingly unrelated ordered probit model. Results suggest that most respondents are willing to trade harvested fish for a healthier and long-term sustainable bass population, suggesting strong compliance with this new law

The relationship between adipose mass and bone density in an over-weight/obese population: a systematic review protocol.

This review aims to look at the relationship between adipose mass and bone density in an overweight/obese population. The available evidence does appear to support evidence of a positive relationship between adipose mass and bone density when considered from a population level. There are however factors associated with an overweight or obese state, that have been shown to be detrimental to bone health, e.g. an increased state of oxidative stress, and physical inactivity. It is possible therefore, that the relationship between adipose and bone mass, which appears positive when considered from a population perspective, may in fact not be when considered from the upper end of the adiposity continuum

The Review of Economic Performance and Social Progress 2001: The Longest Decade: Canada in the 1990s

In this chapter, Paul Jenkins and Brian O'Reilly survey the monetary policy developments in the 1990s, focusing on links between monetary policy and the economic well-being of Canadians. The Bank of Canada economists do admit that tight monetary policy in the early 1990s hurt growth in the short-term, but they argue that such action was necessary to ratchet down entrenched inflationary expectations. Moreover, they argue that stagnation in the early part of the decade was not simply the result of monetary policy, but also reflected a weak US economy and structural problems in the Canadian economy.Monetary Policy, Inflation, Inflation Reduction, Inflation Policy, Growth, Recession, Well-being, Wellbeing, Well Being, Canada