Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Call 5 of the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), with a particular focus on the Advanced and Smart Manufacturing sector, has been launched. The aim of the €500 million Disruptive Technologies Fund is to encourage collaborations between industry and the research sector on the development of ground-breaking technologies.

The Government has already allocated €235 million to 72 projects approved under the previous three DTIF calls. These projects cover areas such as life sciences, medical devices, ICT, artificial intelligence, manufacturing and environmental sustainability. Applications received under call 4 are currently undergoing evaluation and details of the successful projects under that call will be announced later this year.

Call 5 is targeting the Advanced and Smart Manufacturing sector and the development of novel and disruptive innovation in conventional manufacturing operations. This is the first time the fund will focus on a specific sector with the aim of delivering radical enhancement in manufacturing systems or supply chains.

There are several changes to the Fund for this call which are aimed at encouraging applications from this highly important sector in the Irish economy. In this call, each project must have at least one established manufacturing company in a consortium of three or more project partners, one of which must be an SME and one other enterprise partner. Collaborations with the Irish research sector are encouraged. All partners must be based in Ireland and be a client of Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Údarás na Gaeltachta or an eligible Research Performing Organisation (RPO) at the application deadline. The type of eligible research is broadened from “industrial research” to include “experimental development”.

The Fund targets disruptive and innovative research projects of scale and impact. The minimum funding request must be €1.5 million for projects of up to three years’ duration, and the enterprise partners must provide matched funding.

Leo Clancy, CEO, Enterprise Ireland, who administer the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund, said: “Advanced and Smart Manufacturing is a core element of the Government’s Industry 4.0 strategy. This themed DTIF call offers opportunities for enterprises to make significant contributions to the development of this vital sector.

“Irish companies have a well-deserved reputation for demonstrating agility, for leading change and for driving disruption in markets. These are essential traits for the success of the Fund and of the Industry 4.0 strategy. We need Irish SMEs to step forward and use their ingenuity to develop new business models or new methods of manufacturing which will increase productivity in their own business and across their sector.

“For this call, applicants can now submit projects utilising experimental development research as well as industrial research. I would expect to see companies involved in manufacturing and in associated supply chains exploiting the opportunity to give themselves a competitive advantage in their sector.

“Collaboration is a key driver for the success of Industry 4.0 and the Fund is already fostering a strong collaborative culture in Ireland. On their own, many SMEs may not have the capacity to take on the broad range of activity required to maximise their investment in industrial research or experimental development. However, they can use the Fund to collaborate with other SMEs or with larger enterprises and research institutions to share the workload and achieve their objectives. I would urge all SMEs to explore the opportunities that the DTIF offers to assist them in maximising their investments in research.”

All eligible applications received by the deadline of 3pm on 14 July 2022, will undergo rigorous assessment by panels of independent international experts.