Irish companies have won funding of over 200 million euro for research projects into health, energy, ICT and nano-technology.

There were almost 3 thousand applications from Ireland for the EU funding – and over 700 of these were successful.

It means Irish businesses had a success rate of 24 per cent – above the EU average of 22 per cent.

The EU research funding is seen as a major asset in Europe’s fight against the current economic crisis.