The founder of MIT Media Lab, Prof Nicholas Negroponte, has said one of the reasons for the collapse of Dublin-based Media Lab Europe (MLE) was the reluctance of European companies, including Irish firms, to sponsor research.
MLE, which launched just as the technology sector sank into a severe economic crash, had to close because it could not meet financial targets through private sector support and did not receive sufficient public sector support or grants, he said.
MLE folded last Friday partly because its financial model of raising money from corporate sponsors "was freakishly untimely" he told The Irish Times in his first comments since the closure announcement last week.
Prof Negroponte founded MLE's role model, the MIT Media Lab, in 1985 and helped negotiate the MLE deal in 1999.
He told The Irish Times that MIT may consider continued involvement with the Digital Hub once the Government clarifies plans for a proposed research element for the Hub project.
He described the closure of the €130 million project on Friday as "a huge shame" but said the work done by Irish and international researchers at MLE was "beyond my wildest expectations".
"Many visitors to MLE thought the work in Dublin was more edgy than at MIT. In this regard, Ireland received what it asked for in spades," he said. "The failing was economic and the financial model was freakishly untimely."
He said the MIT Media Lab was almost 100 per cent funded by industry in 2000, "whereas today it has almost 40 per cent of its funding coming from the public sector".
"MLE was not able to make this change and did not have a financial parent like MIT to cushion it during the economic downdraft. "
He noted that MIT remained interested in the overall Digital Hub project in Dublin's Liberties area. It is understood the Digital Hub and the Government wish to maintain a research element within the Hub or in its vicinity, but have not yet clarified what this will be.
Prof Negroponte said: "The Government presented their principles for a new research agenda within the Digital Hub, for which a competitive process will be launched within the next year. MIT agreed with those principles fully and will consider the proposal when it comes out."
Prof Negroponte said European business generally remains wedded to an old state-run business and research approach that makes such companies timid about investing in research labs and research in general.
"European companies have always been hard to persuade, in part because funding research is such a public sector enterprise and mindset. In 2000, it felt like we could change that," he said.
Media Lab in Massachusetts would not try to revive MLE in an alternative European location, he said, nor would the Government opt to run it, as happened with Media Lab Asia, which severed ties with Media Lab in 2003 and is now state run.
Prof Negroponte said his biggest disappointment is at the European level. He hoped MLE would spark a new approach to research across the EU. Five years later, he doesn't think much has changed.
"I find research in Europe to be way behind, held back by bureaucracy and lifestyle. Failure in Ireland is disappointing for Europe."
Last night the Green Party called for the Public Accounts Committee to look at how the lab was funded.
Green Party finance spokesman Mr Dan Boyle said: "In light of this closure and the questionable future for the whole Digital Hub project, questions must now be answered about how the money invested has been spent."
