Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund

To encourage Irish businesses to get involved in disruptive technologies, they need enhanced support networks to help them with their innovation and research. Irish state agencies and government have recognised the need for this support and thus decided to recently launch the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). This fund encourages researchers and enterprises to assist Irish companies with opportunities that may come their way.

There is a direct correlation between investment in innovative technologies and increased turnover, exports and profits. Those businesses that partner with others, increase their overall performance significantly, as they can tackle issues together and work towards solving common challenges. This means that products and services are improved much more rapidly. 

The performance gap between those that invest in innovation and those that don’t is rapidly increasing. Yet when focusing on GDP, Irish companies only spend around half the European average on innovation which desperately needs to change.

This €500 million initiative, €90 million of which will be available from 2019-2021, will directly support the development of new, innovative business solutions and disruptive technologies which can potentially alter the markets, the way they function and fundamentally how a business will operate. The fund is set to support projects that currently exceed €1 million in value.  

Projects are funded at 50% for companies and 100% for RPOs.  Projects must be collaborative with at least 2 partners.  At least one SME in each consortium is essential.

DTIF Projects Will Be Evaluated On:

• Strength of the Disruptive Technology Dimension – one-third of the marks
• Economic and Market Impact (in 3 to 5 years) – one-third of the marks
• Excellence of the Overall Proposal and Approach – one-sixth of the marks
• Quality and Efficiency of the Collaboration – one-sixth of the marks

The application process is an initial 20-page expression of interest, then if shortlisted, the consortium will have four weeks to prepare the main application. An interview consisting of a panel of international experts and agency members forms part of the overall evaluation process.

Things To Bear In Mind When Preparing Your DTIF Application:

• How does your project align with the Research Priorities 2018-2023

https://dbei.gov.ie/en/Publications/Publication-files/Research-Priority-Areas-2018-to-2023.pdf

• How does your project address National Strategic Outcomes and Public Investment Priorities

https://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/2018/02/national-development-plan-2018-2027.pdf