Under new CEO Diarmuid O'Brien, Research Ireland's inaugural strategy aims to transform the country's innovation output. Can thousands of new PhDs and a more entrepreneurial approach answer Mario Draghi's critique of European competitiveness?
Simon Boucher was brought in to attract the private sector to Ireland's new flagship scholarship. Global Innovators Ireland has big ambitions to grow.
The appointment of Diarmuid O'Brien as the new CEO of Research Ireland represents something of a coup for the agency. His February interview with The Currency gives an insight into what to expect from its new leader.
A lot of the talk about developing innovation in Ireland is superficial. That is why the detailed intervention by Dubliner Diarmuid O’Brien, innovation tzar at the University of Cambridge, is so fascinating.
Between start-ups and multinationals, established privately-held domestic companies drive one third of the economy. Often overlooked, they risk falling behind.
The Irish economy contracted in 2023. Did you feel it? Very likely you didn’t. Why is that? More importantly, what should we do about it? We should innovate.
Ireland is never, ever, ever building an innovation system of the scale of the UK, or the US, even in per-person terms. Then why bother? Because small states have to choose carefully.
Investment in Irish start-ups plummeted by 48 per cent last year, but other metrics tell a different story of venture capital activity here and across Europe.
Innovation is not only poor, but it’s exhausting. That’s because there’s no real difference between innovation and capitalism anymore, something I think about every time I go to a public toilet or try to turn on a hob.
If Ireland wants to get over the looming transition to an older population, it should look at how it embraces automation technologies such as robotics and AI.
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