Professor Miles Turner: some impact

Unlike most of the rest of society, the Irish science and research community has some genuine reasons to be cheerful, with major new funding announcements recently.


The new funds for research, announced at the end of February by the government and Intel, have sent out a signal that Ireland remains serious about becoming a knowledge-based economy. To achieve this, research funding must remain high on the agenda.


The new public funds will be administered by the state-sponsored body Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), which is to provide €23.9m for five projects. These Strategic Research Clusters (SRCs) will link academic researchers with industry.


Following this came the Intel announcement that it is to invest €50m in its Shannon research and development facility and create 134 high-technology jobs over four years. In the future, Shannon will be at the centre of the creation of new Intel products.


These moves help – in stark contrast to the banking and financial sector – to create confidence that all is well in research in Ireland.


The new SRC research collaboration projects involve universities, institutes of technology and indigenous firms and multinationals.


UCD will receive €3.56m for work that will make it easier to analyse people's use of internet, email and mobile phones. "I am delighted the government would still spend money to develop the R&D infrastructure in the country. That was a brave thing to do," said UCD's Professor Pádraig Cunningham.


"We could revert to a situation where salaries drop considerably and then we are able to compete in manufacturing jobs with countries in eastern Europe. The alternative is that we go after high-value R&D business. This SRC programme will identify research challenges of interest to business. It has got the best prospect of delivering technology that will be useful for industry."


Waterford IT has been granted €5.86m for research into the infrastructure that will support the future of the internet. The idea is to develop ways and means to maximise the available internet infrastructure, and save money.


"In terms of the way forward, I feel that this type of investment is really going to drive the future development of ICT in Ireland," said WIT's Dr William Donnelly.


"By doing this type of research now we build up the knowledge and expertise that allows us to roll out the infrastructure for the future internet. That's going to attract the multinationals here because we are ahead of the curve. It's also going to create a huge number of indigenous jobs."


DCU will receive €4.9m for work into what's called 'separation science'. This field, which is crucial to the pharmaceutical and food industry, for example, helps to provide very precise measurements of materials. "The money that the government has funded here will be doubled at least by the time the cluster finishes. That's investment back into people and research in Ireland," said DCU's Professor Brett Paull. "We will rapidly expand our research base through this kind of mechanism. In our model for this cluster we will pay back the Irish taxpayer by bringing in extra money for companies.


"It's a very important signal for researchers overseas, and for companies, to see that research goes on in Ireland and is still pushing forward – that's a big signal."


DCU, has also been granted €4.3m for developing 'plasma technology' that can provide the basis for cheaper and higher tech manufacturing.


"There is, of course, going to be some impact of the present economic environment, but we haven't, for example, seen any pulling back from the companies," said DCU's Professor Miles Turner.


NUI Galway will receive €5.16m for the development of new molecules and therapeutics that can control disease-causing bacteria in the gut.


"With the current crisis, globally, there is a sense of gloom, but this is also the time when the next leaders emerge," said NUI's Professor Lokesh Joshi.


"It is important to realise, and have pride in the fact, that the country has made significant investment in bolstering its science and research in the past decade."