Ulster Unionist Chair of the Employment and Learning Committee, Robin Swann MLA, has cited the DETI Innovation Strategy as central to promoting economic growth and improving performance in this area.

The North Antrim MLA said;

“The current economic strategy, published nearly two years ago, clearly sets out a focus on export led economic growth with the key drivers of this being Research & Development (R&D), innovation and skills. I fully concur with that approach and it is certainly a step in the right direction that the Enterprise Minister has finally published a draft innovation strategy for consultation.

‘The fact that Northern Ireland had the lowest number of patents applied for, and granted, in any UK region for 2010 and 2011 is a worrying statistic, as these are important indicators of how well an economy is innovating. Invest NI must step up to the mark and individuals and businesses should be encouraged to utilise the Intellectual Property Starter Pack provided by them. The finding of a recent Nesta (National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts) poll is also cause for concern,  as it showed that 56 per cent of NI business leaders invested either none, or less than one per cent, of their business revenue in innovation in the last financial year. In percentage terms we also have less innovation active firms in NI than in the rest of the UK.

‘While we have undoubtedly seen advances in some areas - for example spend on R&D is now around the UK level - we have a long way to go to catch up with examples such as Finland in a European context and Singapore globally. In truth we are still underperforming and we need a strategy with specific actions to encourage innovation and firm targets for investment against which performance can be measured.

‘I support the vision of the draft strategy which is to have Northern Ireland recognised as an innovation hub which embraces creativity and innovation at all levels of society. It must be remembered that Northern Ireland has previously produced some extremely important inventors such as Harry Ferguson, Sir James Martin and Frank Pantridge. I believe we can build on that success.”