An additional £5.6 million is expected to become available to companies doing in-house research under the existing Research Technology Innovation EU-funded programme, the second time that money has been added to this scheme.

The Research Technology Innovation programme, formerly called Measure 1, is administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The programme allows companies doing research to recoup up to 50 per cent of their costs from Ireland's share of the Structural Fund.

The original 1994-1999 budget was set at £105 million and, to date, 357 Irish firms have received £65 million, according to a spokesman for the Office of Science and Technology. Such was the demand for the programme that an additional £29 million was allocated last year and now a further £5.6 million has been earmarked. The extra funds come from Structural Fund monies already agreed for Ireland which have been redirected from other projects.

The second increase awaits the approval of the Community Support Framework Monitoring Committee which meets next Thursday. The committee usually rubber-stamps readjustments of this kind, but they are not formally accepted until it agrees, according to informed sources. There are more than 200 company applications being considered by the Research Technology Innovation committee which decides which projects are to receive funding. About 20 new applications are received each week. The process has become very competitive because of over subscription and only two-thirds of applicants were successful according to the Office of Science and Technology. Projects are assessed on both technical and commercial grounds.

If approval is given the company must first spend the money and can then recover some of the expense to a maximum of 50 per cent, although the average is about 27 per cent. The funding ceiling is set at £350,000 but most awards are significantly smaller. "We think it is a great signal for industrial research and development," said Dr Dick Kavanagh, managing director of the Industry Research Development Group, which represents companies doing research.