In his first major interview since taking over as the new CEO of Research Ireland, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien sat down with SiliconRepublic.com for a wide-ranging interview.
Having recently left his role as vice-chancellor for innovation at the University of Cambridge in the UK to take up the reins at Research Ireland’s new centre, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien is clearly relishing the challenges and opportunities of the new role. He believes that this organization has an important part to play in the future prosperity and development of Ireland.
“I loved my role at Cambridge, but a new job, a new agency, a new commitment to research and innovation in the country, seemed like a really good opportunity to come back and do something, not just at the institutional level, but at the national level,” O’Brien said of the move.
“And I think I’m of the view – and I hope others share this view – that research and innovation will be very important to our future. So to be able to play a role in helping to develop Ireland from a research innovation perspective, and get us ready for that future, is really exciting.”
Prior to that last role, O’Brien was chief executive of Cambridge Enterprise, and prior to that he held a number of roles at Trinity College Dublin for over 15 years including being Trinity’s first chief innovation and business officer. All of that having spent time in business-based startups in his previous career. He hopes to bring that breadth of experience to the agency.
The research funding agency will play a key role in Ireland’s economic strategy, and how we improve our competitiveness, as set out in the Draghi Report, he tells me.
“Personally, I think Research Ireland is going to be a very important asset for the country,” O’Brien said. “If you look at the big picture – at one level, we have a very good story in Ireland, which we should not forget. We are one of the few economies that continue to grow. We are one of the few economies in Europe that are running a budget surplus.
“Having said that, I think we all recognize that there are challenges at a systemic level and perhaps at an economic level. It is clear that we need to continue to increase foreign direct investment and embed it here, but at the same time, we need to improve our focus on how we grow Ireland’s industrial base. It is difficult to see how we can achieve any of those goals without a significant increase in the effectiveness of our research and our country.”
O’Brien is quick to emphasize that this is part of the agency’s role, and another is about community impact.
“It’s not just about our economic future. When we think about the challenges we face as a country in terms of the climate agenda, or AI and regulations, or the digitization of our economy, or the challenges we have now in terms of using evidence and data to inform public policy to do things better in terms of infrastructure and planning and housing – all of that is also supported and enabled by advanced research and innovation space.
“It’s also powered by a pool of PhD-trained talent that can bring that critical thinking, bring that analysis, bring data insights to life in public service, in NGOs and in industry. So for me, research and innovation is a key pillar. I think we’ve gone from being a nice-to-have to a must-have in that kind of environment. And that’s why I’ve enjoyed the role of research for so many years in Ireland.”
Watch the interview to hear about the three pillars that will be at the heart of Research Ireland’s new strategy when it is published next month (March), and more details on O’Brien’s vision for the future of Ireland and our research infrastructure.
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