Dr Eoin O’Sullivan

Eoin is the Babbage Fellow of Technology & Innovation Policy and the Director of the Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy at the Institute for Manufacturing.

Academic Interests

• Government foresight and strategy development for key emerging technologies
• Comparative analysis of international innovation systems, institutions, policies
• University-industry research collaboration and commercialisation mechanisms
• The influence of standardisation and regulation on emerging technologies
• The ‘manufacturability’ and ‘scale-up’ challenges of key emerging technologies
• Innovation agency support for emerging science and technology R&D

Background

Eoin O’Sullivan joined the Institute for Manufacturing as a Senior Policy Fellow in 2007. Since then Eoin has carried out research on the ways science and engineering R&D is translated in new technologies, industries and economic wealth. Eoin’s policy-related activities have included studies for the UK Department of Business, Innovation & Skills; the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council; the UK Government Office of Science; Innovate UK; and Research England. Eoin has also worked with a range of international organisations, including the OECD, EU Commission, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation and US National Academies.

In addition to his technology and innovation policy research activities, Eoin also maintains an interest in university research and knowledge exchange practices. He is co-author, with Dr Gary Crawley, of The Grant Writer’s Handbook: How to Write a Research Proposal and Succeed (Imperial College Press, 2015). Eoin also maintains a set of grant writing webpages offering basic tips for researchers preparing grant applications, and gives occasional grant-writing workshops (with particular focus on communicating research impact and the value of research partnerships).

Before joining the IfM, Eoin was Special Advisor to the Director General of Science Foundation Ireland. At SFI, Eoin managed several university-industry initiatives including the national Centres for Science, Engineering & Technology programme. Eoin was part of the original team that set up SFI. He was both a Senior Policy Advisor at Forfas, The Irish National Policy & Advisory Board for Enterprise, Trade, Science, Technology & Innovation. Eoin has a BSc from University College Cork and a D.Phil. from the Physics Department of Oxford University.

Selected Publications & Policy Studies

• O’Sullivan, E., Phaal, R. (2021, forthcoming). ‘Agile’ Roadmapping: An adaptive approach to technology foresight. Foresight and STI Governance.
• Ho, J.-Y., O’Sullivan, E. (2020). Toward integrated innovation roadmapping: Lessons from multiple functional roadmaps beyond technology R&D. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
• O’Sullivan, E. (2020). A technology management and innovation systems perspective on the ARPA model. Written evidence RFA0094, House of Commons Science & Technology Committee inquiry into ‘A new UK research funding agency’.
• Roca, J.B., O’Sullivan, E. (2020). The role of regulators in mitigating uncertainty within the ‘Valley of Death’. Technovation.
• Roca, J.B., O’Sullivan, E. (2020). Seeking coherence between barriers to manufacturing technology adoption and innovation policy. International Journal of Production Economics, 230.
• Park, H., Phaal, R., Ho, J-Y., O’Sullivan, E. (2020). Twenty Years of Roadmapping Research: A ‘School of Thought’ Perspective. Technology Forecasting & Social Change, 150.
• Ho, J-Y, O’Sullivan, E. (2019). Addressing the evolving standardisation challenges of ‘smart systems’ innovation: Emerging roles for government? Science & Public Policy, pp. 1-18.
• Hauge, J., O’Sullivan, E. (2019). Inside the black box of manufacturing: Conceptualising and counting manufacturing. Report for Dept of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.
• Ho, J-Y, O’Sullivan, E. (2018). Standardisation framework to enable complex technological innovations: The case of photovoltaic technology. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 50, pp 2-23.
• O’Sullivan, E., Lopez-Gomez, C. (2017). An International Review of Emerging Manufacturing R&D Priorities and Policies for the Next Production Revolution in Enabling the Next Production Revolution. Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development.
• Featherston, C., O’Sullivan, E. (2017). Enabling technologies, transitions, and industrial systems in technology foresight: Insights from advanced materials FTA, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 115, pp. 261-277.
• López-Gómez, C., Leal-Ayala, D., Palladino, M., & O’Sullivan, E. (2017). Emerging Trends in Global Advanced Manufacturing: Challenges, Opportunities and Policy Responses. United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
• Ho, J-Y, O’Sullivan, E. (2017). Strategic Standardisation of Smart Systems: Roadmapping Process in Support of Innovation. Technology Forecasting and Social Change, 115, pp. 301-312.
• O’Sullivan, E. (2016). A Review of International Approaches to Center-based Multidisciplinary Engineering Research. A report for US National Academy of Engineering.
• Coates Ulrichsen, T. and O’Sullivan, E. (2015). Building Long Term Strategic University-Industry Partnerships: Lessons and Effective Practices from UK and US Experiences. CSTI Workshop Report.
• Featherston, C., Ho, J-Y, Brévignon-Dodin, L., O’Sullivan, E. (2015). Mediating and catalysing innovation: A framework for anticipating the standardisation needs of emerging technologies. Technovation, 48-49, pp. 25–40.
• Beecher, P., O’Sullivan, E. (2015). A Review of International Approaches to Supporting Quantum Technologies Research & Innovation. A report for the EPSRC.
• Crawley, G, O’Sullivan, E. (2015). The Grant Writer’s Handbook: How to Write a Research Proposal and Succeed, Imperial College Press.
• Andreoni, A., & O’Sullivan, E. (2014, November). Vectors of innovation in industrial ecosystems: The role of specialist production and engineering contractors in the co-detection and co-creation of opportunities. In Edith Penrose Centenary Conference, SOAS–University of London (pp. 14-15).
• McCaffrey, P., O’Sullivan, E., Lopez-Gomez, C. (2014). Navigating Complexity in Foresight: Lessons from the UK Future of Manufacturing Project. 5th International Conference on Future-Oriented Technology Analysis.
• Featherston, C., O’Sullivan, E. (2014). A Review of International Public Sector Technology Strategies and Roadmaps: Case Study of Advanced Materials. A report for the Government Office of Science and Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
• O’Sullivan, E., Andreoni, A., Lopez-Gomez, G. and Gregory, M. (2013). What is New in the New Industrial Policy? A Manufacturing System Perspective, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 29(2), pp. 432-462.
• Featherston, C; Gregory, M; Gill, A & O’Sullivan, E (2013), High Value Manufacturing in the UK: A Study of its Challenges, Opportunities and Emerging Technologies, Asian International Journal of Science and Technology in Production and Manufacturing Engineering, 6(2), pp. 61-70.
• Probert, D., Ford, S., Routley, M., O’Sullivan, E. Phaal, R. (2013). Understanding and navigating industrial emergence. Proceeding of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture, 227 (6), pp. 781-793.
• O’Sullivan, E. (2013). S&T Innovation Systems: The Role of Manufacturing, Intermediate Institutes and Leaders in Addressing Research Innovation & Leadership, Andersson, T., Djeflat, A. (Ed.s). Innovation Technology & Knowledge Management, Springer.
• O’Sullivan, E. and Mitchell, N. (2012). International Approaches to Understanding the Future of Manufacturing. A report for the UK Government Office of Science.
• O’Sullivan, E. and Brevignon-Dodin, L. (2012). The Role of Standardisation in Supporting Emerging Technologies. A study for the UK Department of Business, Innovation & Skills and the British Standards Institute.
• O’Sullivan, E. (2011). International Approaches to Manufacturing Research. A report for the UK Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council.
  Phaal, R., O’Sullivan, E. Routley, M., Ford, S., Probert, D. (2010). A framework for mapping industrial emergence. Technol. Forecast Soc. Change, 78: 217-230
• Kenward, M., O’Sullivan, E. (2010). Impact where it matters: The economic, social and cultural benefits of higher education in the UK. A workshop report for the Higher Education Funding Council of England.
• O’Sullivan, E. (2010). The Role of the National Research Base as Attractor of R&D Foreign Direct Investment. A report for the UK Department of Business, Innovation & Skills.
• Crawley, G.M. and O’Sullivan, E. (2006). ‘The Celtic Tiger and a Knowledge Economy’. Industry & Higher Education, Vol. 20 (4), 225-229.
• Kyhm, K. Taylor, R.A., O’Sullivan, E.D., et al. (2002). Hot phonons and non-thermal carrier states in GaN. Physica B-Condensed Matter, 314 (1-4): 30-34
• Kim, J., Maciel, A., O’Sullivan, E.D., et al (2000). Fermi-edge singularities in the photoluminescence spectrum of modulation-dope v-groove quantum wires’ Physica E, 7(3-4): 517-520
• Maciel, A. C., Kim, J., O’Sullivan, E. D., Ryan, J. F., Schwarz, A., Kaluza, A., … & Lüth, H. (1999). Optical and transport studies of hot electrons in modulation-doped quantum wires. Physica B: Condensed Matter, 272(1-4), 101-106.
• Smith, D. C., O’Sullivan, E. D., Rota, L., Maciel, A. C., & Ryan, J. F. (1998). Ultrafast optical response and inter-valley scattering in GaSb/AlSb quantum wells. Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures, 2(1-4), 156-160.
• Morrison, A. P., Lambkin, J. D., O’Sullivan, E., & Fahy, S. (1994). Simple effective mass model to include the effects of Γ-X mixing in multiquantum barriers. Optical Engineering, 33(12), 3926-3931.