Science and research:Capital investment for investment in basic research at Centres for Science and Technology and Engineering will increase by €36.5 million to almost €300 million in 2008.
Announcing provisions for science, technology and innovation (STI) in the Budget today, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said R&D, innovation management, and collaborative effort between industry and the third-level sector will attract "significant support" from the Government.
"This will be matched on the current side by an additional €12 million for higher education research, bringing the total STI expenditure on the current side to €133 million in 2008," he said.
Mr Cowen said Ireland is viewed by multinational companies as a location for R&D activity, and he announced changes to the R&D tax credit scheme to help encourage such "high value-added activities".
"The base year for expenditure used to calculate expenditure on research and development is being fixed at 2003 for a further four years to 2013," Mr Cowen said.
"The change will provide an additional inventive for increased expenditure on R&D in future years, and it will offer more certainty to industry in relation to the tax credit scheme. This improvement will cost €60 million in a full year and is an essential complementary measure to Government spending on STI."
The Minister said significant and sustained investment in STI "is an essential part of the drive to make Ireland a more knowledge-driven economy".