The Department of Communications has published a positive review of the operation of the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) by independent consultants Indecon.
Indecon which submitted its report to the department in June 2023, recommended that the existing agreement with the contractor running the NDRC be extended by two years, from November 2023 to November 2025. This contract extension subsequently took place.
However, the Department of Communications, following consultation with the Department of Enterprise and Enterprise Ireland, last month decided not to extend the life of the NDRC beyond November 2025, saying the ecosystem had evolved significantly since its establishment in 2006.
Amid the ensuing controversy, leading figures in the Irish tech industry called on the Government to reverse the decision, saying the loss of the NDRC would hurt innovation and economic resilience.
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NDRC has been run by a consortium led by Dogpatch Labs since 2020, when it was awarded the contract to manage its accelerator programme for young digital enterprises and start-ups on behalf of the State.
Indecon’s review, intended to “provide an evidence base” to support Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan’s decision to approve the extension until November 2025, gives the NDRC a strong report card, finding “satisfactory outputs and outcomes”.
It notes that the performance of the accelerator programme “substantively exceeded almost all the monitoring targets” that were set for 2021 and 2022.
“While some level of deadweight will be present for any such supports, the findings from Indecon’s research among companies did not suggest that this is a substantive issue for the NDRC,” it concluded.
It also highlighted a “continued market need” for the NDRC’s services, but said “a more fundamental review” would be required to establish the longer-term rationale for and design of any future NDRC structure.
The NDRC invested in 11 companies in 2021 and 13 companies in 2022, equating to total of €2.4 million invested between 2021 and 2022, the review states.
Services contract targets for investment were exceeded in 2021 and met in 2022. By the end of 2022, some 50 per cent of start-ups had completed a seed investment round within six to 18 months of completing the programme. This was significantly higher than the 35 per cent target.
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