The MATRIX website is home to the latest Northern Ireland science & technology news, the most relevant reports and of course our own studies on Northern Ireland’s tech sectors and how best to grow them.
MATRIX is proud to support the 2018 Year of Engineering
Latest Science & Technology News
MATRIX Creative Technologies report launched
The Creative Technology report was launched today at the Ulster Museum. MATRIX Creative Technologies report This short report examines the creative technology sector in Northern [...]
Belfast games company wins support from CreativeXR
A Belfast games company has won the chance to develop an immersive prototype through a UK wide competition. Boom Clap Play will develop "When Something [...]
Three NI companies selected for Phase 1 of the Smart School Transport SBRI
Kinsetsu, Analytics Engines and Deloitte MCS have been selected by the Education Authority (EA) for Phase 1 of their SBRI to develop innovative solutions to [...]
What is Matrix?
MATRIX, the Northern Ireland Science Industry Panel, is a business led expert panel, formed primarily to advise government, industry and academia on the commercial exploitation of R&D and science and technology in Northern Ireland.
We produce regular, in depth reports which outline the work, findings and recommendations of our specialist panels. These reports are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in how new technologies and market opportunities can be developed within the Northern Ireland economy and beyond.
What we do
Our role
We advise government, industry and academia on the potential for commercial exploitation of R&D and science & technology for the NI economy.
Our impact
Our recommendations have influenced the development of key strategies such as the Programme for Government and the Northern Ireland Innovation Strategy.
Our partners
We work in partnership with a wide range of professional organisations, all working together to help build a sustainable economy in Northern Ireland.
STEM
We first highlighted the importance of innovation, research and development in Northern Ireland’s STEM industries in 2008 and we’ve been promoting it ever since.
The Northern Ireland Innovation Dashboard
This unique dashboard gives a summary of Northern Ireland’s innovation performance across six key innovation indicators:
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Innovation
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R&D Spend
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R&D Funding
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Skills & Higher Education
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Entrepreneurship
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The Knowledge Economy
Introducing....
The latest publication of the Northern Ireland Innovation Dashboard
A summary of Northern Ireland’s innovation performance....
....across six key innovation indicators.
The most up to date statistics...
...showing progress against the four goals of the Northern Ireland Innovation Strategy.
The Northern Ireland Executive has set an ambitious target.....
They want us to be in the top four of the 12 UK regions by 2025.
Increasing our R&D Spend....
Doubling our baseline figure of £616m in 2012 to £1.2bn in 2025.
Increasing the number of jobs in the Knowledge Economy....
....from 35,777 to 58,000 by the year 2025.
So how are we doing?
The MATRIX Panel
We have a main panel of twelve business and academic leaders, supported by a small secretariat team based in the Department for the Economy. The panel is currently Dr. Rob Hardeman and the Deputy Chair is Norman Apsley. Other panel members include Professor Jim McLaughlin OBE, Cathy Gormley-Heenan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Impact) at Ulster University and Bombardier’s Gavin Campbell.
Our current projects
MATRIX has a robust programme of work in place, from our main Horizon panel reports to smaller reports and ‘thought pieces’ for government and strategic bodies. We are currently working on several short reports on topics such as creative technologies, AI and Women in STEM.
Creative Technology
Matrix is currently undertaking a short study into the interface between technology and creativity, following one of the supporting recommendations from the 2016 Digital ICT report.
Artificial Intelligence
MATRIX is conducting a short scoping study of Northern Ireland’s capability in AI, led by Dr Rob Hardeman, MATRIX Chair, and Tom Gray, Director of the NI Digital Catapult.
Women in STEM
We are currently examining how to tackle the shortage of women in STEM. If we can encourage women into STEM and ensure they remain in the skills pipeline, we could go a long way to solving skills shortages.
The library
This library is a collection of documents that the MATRIX panel and secretariat have used in their research. If you are looking for reports that MATRIX has produced, please visit our Reports section. The most recent additions to the library are here – if you want to see the full collection, arranged by topic, please visit the library section.
After the reboot: computing education in UK schools
After the reboot: computing education in UK schools This Royal Society report explores the challenges and issues facing the subject in primary and secondary schools since the subject was introduced in [...]
Getting Skills Right: Good Practice in Adapting to Changing Skill Needs
Getting Skills Right: Good Practice in Adapting to Changing Skill Needs This report identifies effective strategies to tackle skills imbalances, based on five country-specific policy notes for France, Italy, Spain, South [...]
AI Now 2017 Report
AI Now 2017 Report Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are in a phase of rapid development, and are being adopted widely. While the concept of artificial intelligence has existed for over sixty [...]
Live SBRIs
The Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) connects public sector challenges with innovative ideas from industry, supporting companies to generate economic growth and enabling improvement in achieving government objectives.
SBRI provides innovative solutions to challenges faced by the public sector and generates new business opportunities for companies, providing SMEs with a route to market for their ideas and bridging the seed funding gap experienced by many early stage companies. It supports economic growth and enables the development of innovative products and services through the public procurement of research and development (R&D).
All of the current and forthcoming funding competitions run by Innovate UK are published on the GOV.UK website.
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