New areas of research, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality and smart food are to be prioritised for Government funding over the next five years.
The recently published Research Priority Areas 20218-2023 document lays out the new areas of study that will attract competitively awarded public investment over the period.
The review of priority areas was carried out as part of the Government's Innovation 2020 research and development strategy and updates the 14 areas that were prioritised when research prioritisation was first introduced in 2012.
The aim of the initiative was to map government funding to areas of research that were most likely to provide the biggest economic return for the public investment.
But the policy proved controversial at the time and since among some researchers here, who felt their disciplines had been sidelined because they did not offer the same commercial potential as others.
The latest review found that while many of the priority areas remain as relevant in 2018 as they were during the last cycle, changing circumstances necessitated several revisions and updates.
The most significant changes, the document said, have been to the "Energy" area arising from an "increased urgency to address climate change and sustainability challenges, alongside the increased opportunities for enterprise within this wider context."
As a result, it has been renamed "Energy, Climate Action and Sustainability", and the two priority areas have been updated to "Decarbonising the Energy System; and Sustainable Living".
In the area of ICT, robotics, artificial intelligence including machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality have all been added.
The "Health" area has also been renamed to include "Well-Being" because of the increased focus on preventive health measures, the review says.
Also broadened is the Sustainable Food Production and Processing priority area to reflect the evolution in technology since 2012 and the key emerging priorities in the EU initiative Food 2030.
These include the need for food systems that are climate smart and environmentally sustainable food systems.
Changes in manufacturing brought about by technology and digitisation mean this area has been renamed Advanced and Smart Manufacturing.
To recognise the fact that new materials are fundamentally important to other priority areas, the "Processing Technologies and Novel Materials" stream is renamed "Manufacturing and Novel Materials".
Professor Orla Feely, Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact at UCD, has welcomed the publication of the new priorities.
The Professor said they reflect some of the major global opportunities for Ireland, along with the importance the country places on the implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
But she added that she was worried that other aims of Innovation 2020 remain unmet.
"I am concerned that many of the game-changing actions in that strategy remain outstanding as we approach the half-way point in its implementation," Professor Feely said.
"The recent Government document Enterprise 2025 Renewed points out that we are still a long way from achieving our national R&D intensity ambition of 2.5% of GNP by 2020, and that we now risk losing momentum and undermining investments to date," she added.
"I share this concern, and we in UCD will work with Government and other stakeholders to support the case for the R&D investment that Ireland needs," she stated.
