The Government has appointed consultant Mr Tom Higgins to seek views on what research body should replace the failed MediaLab Europe project in Dublin.

The consultation process will include third-level institutes, industry, Government agencies and the Digital Hub. It will seek to identify what the research focus, structure and objectives of the new entity should be and should be completed by March.

A note on the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources website says that the Government will draw on the results of the consultation to "make decisions regarding the shape of a new research entity and how an organisation or consortium to manage the facility will be selected".

However, speaking in the Dáil this week, the Minister for Communications, Mr Dempsey, said the new research body would be different to MediaLab Europe but "related to the digital media research".

He said a tender for the new research agency would be issued shortly and expressions of interest would be sought by the middle of this year.

Asked if the Committee of Public Accounts should investigate the collapse of MediaLab Europe, Mr Dempsey said he would have no objection to co-operating if a committee wanted background detail.

"I would certainly not term it an investigation," he added.

MediaLab Europe collapsed last month when its two shareholders, the Government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), failed to agree a rescue package.

The original business plan for the MediaLab Europe project envisaged the research body drawing all its funding from corporate sponsors. However, when these sponsors failed to emerge and management failures at MediaLab Europe were highlighted in a consultancy report for the Government undertaken by Mr Higgins, the State agreed to wind down the project.

The State spent €35.5 million on the MediaLab Europe project and about 50 people will lose their jobs when it closes.