281. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of payments issued to date for successful applications made under the disruptive technologies innovation fund, by county, in tabular form; the number of applications at grant agreement stage; the number of applications earmarked for prepayment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24846/19]

The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) is a €500 million fund established under Project Ireland 2040. In December 2018, 27 collaborative projects were approved for funding under the first call of the DTIF. The DTIF will see investment in the research, development and deployment of disruptive technologies and applications on a commercial basis. The successful projects represent the health, food, ICT and manufacturing sectors in Ireland. There are 104 organisations involved across the 27 projects that will receive funding and these include large enterprises, SMEs and higher education institutions/ public research bodies. A number of HEIs/public research bodies are involved in multiple projects. As indicated in December 2018, the 27 projects involve a request for DTIF funding of circa €75 million of which €20m is due to be drawn down during 2019. The DTIF is being administered by Enterprise Ireland on behalf of my Department.

No payments have yet been made under DTIF Call 1. Contracts are now being finalised by Enterprise Ireland in respect of each of the 27 projects and grant drawdown will commence shortly. In terms of prepayments, the public research bodies involved in the 27 projects will receive a share of their award on signature of contracts (in line with existing practice across other RD&I programmes). Public research bodies are involved in 25 of the 27 DTIF Call 1 projects. Small enterprises (less than 50 employees) involved across the 27 projects have also been invited to request an element of pre-funding (in line with Enterprise Ireland’s existing legislation). The number of small enterprises that will request pre-funding is not yet known. By September 2019, the first payments under DTIF Call 1 will have been made and I will be in a position to provide tabular information by county at that point. The first claims for incurred expenditure will not be made until November 2019 and, therefore, I expect that it will be late in 2019 before I can report on the full 2019 drawdown of DTIF funding.

Pending this, the details of each of the successful projects including the partners involved in each, a brief description of each project and the value of funding approved is available on my Department’s website and is replicated in the following table.

Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF) - Awards Under First Call (2018)

Projects approved for €5 to 10 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021

Projects approved for €3 to 5 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021

Projects approved for €1 to 3 million in DTIF funding over the 3 years to 2021