Northern Ireland's two universities have laid off dozens of staff involved in important research and development work because of 16 per cent cuts in government funding, according to a top academic at the University of Ulster.

Prof Gerry McKenna, the University's Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research, said that more jobs would be lost unless the government reversed its policy.

"At a time when we're trying to rebuild the Northern Ireland economy, and trying to attract the kind of high technology inward investment on which the future of the province depends," Prof McKenna said, "such cutbacks are extremely short-sighted".

Prof McKenna said that this figure of 16 per cent was far higher than in any other region of the UK, and that the work carried out at the universities was even more important because of the large number of small and medium-sized firms.