Irish Government prioritise funding for AR amongst other R&D
An article on RTE addressed how it is necessary for the Irish Government to prioritise new areas of research, such as artificial intelligence, Augmented Reality, and smart food over the next five years.
The Research Priority Areas 2018–2023 document which was recently published states new areas of study that will be key for investment over the time period assessed. The review was conducted as part of the Irish Government’s Innovation 2020 research and development strategy; it updates the areas that were first prioritised in the introduction of research prioritisation in 2012.
The aim of this initiative was to map government funding around areas of research most likely to provide large economic revenue. However, this policy was controversial when first introduced and still now among researchers who felt their disciplines were sidelined due to lack of commercial potential.
Key updates to the document include:
- The ‘Energy’ area has been renamed to ‘Energy, Climate Action and Sustainability’
- Priority areas for the above are now ‘Decarbonising the Energy System; and Sustainable Living’
- In the area of ICT, robotics, artificial intelligence (including machine learning), AR and VR have all been added
- The ‘Health’ area has been renamed to ‘Well-Being’
- The ‘Sustainable Food Production and Processing’ area has been broadened to include the need for climate smart and environmentally sustainable food systems
- The manufacturing area has been renamed to ‘Advanced and Smart Manufacturing’
- The ‘Processing Technologies and Novel Materials’ has been renamed ‘Manufacturing and Novel Materials’
Professor Orla Feely, Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact at UCD, is in support of the updates, as she claims that they reflect major global opportunities for Ireland, and place importance on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, she is quoted to have aired concerns about reaching the national R&D intensity ambition of 2.5% of GNP by 2020.