Thread by @TurloughDownes

A thread on #research policy - maybe not good New Year fare, but #COVID19 has demonstrated how important it is to have it right. Really interested in a conversation around this. International best practice is to create a broad base of international quality research activity: 1/11

A broad base ensures we are as well prepared and well educated as we can be for whatever comes along. Excellent #research happens in both the private and public sectors and both should be encouraged. Tax policy incentivises the former: the challenge lies with the latter 2/11

For at least 10 yrs there has been confusion over the reason for funding public sector #research, and what the distinction is between this research and for-profit research: take a look at the @scienceirel annual reports to see the emphasis on commercialisation 3/11

This confusion has serious implications for #highered where research informs teaching: i.e. where knowledge transfer from #highered to the private sector occurs best. The @DeptofFHed has serious skin in the game, and can make a real difference, here 4/11

What value does public #research bring to society and our economy? Focusing publicly funded research on commercialisable topics might be sub-optimal, since for-profit organisations can/should do it anyway and, as noted, we already have the tax incentives to encourage this 5/11

Also, focusing public #research on commercialisable areas brings the public sector into an arena to which the private sector is better suited. It seems like good sense to focus public research funding into another arena where for-profits can't/don't perform 6/11

How about focusing public #research funding onto blue-sky areas? Around 50% of all public research funding across the EU goes here. In Ireland the main research agency funds applied/"oriented basic" research and the figure is closer to 10%. NB: "oriented basic" = "applied" 7/11

So Ireland already incentivises the private sector to do excellent research via tax policy. We can complete a coherent, competitive #research landscape by encouraging the public sector to focus on research which the private sector cannot do: long-term, speculative research 8/11

Making publicly funded #research open and available to all ( #OpenScience ) , so that public research cannot be patented, allows all private organisations to use that research in an open, competitive environment: public research is used more efficiently. 9/11

Finally, there is high public support for blue-sky #research So does it make sense for Ireland to move the public research focus in this direction: blue-sky, open access public research? If it does, then why aren't we doing it? 10/11

If it doesn't make sense to focus public #research funding on blue-sky research, does that mean the public sector is more skilled at developing commercialisable research than the private sector? If so, how can we transfer that skill effectively to the private sector? 11/11