When it comes to publicly-funded research, Ireland sits at the bottom of the EU league table. When it comes to publicly-funded research within the State, the institutes of technology are to be found at the bottom of the league.

Eugene O'Leary, chief executive of TecNet, says the latest figures from Forfβs show that the institutes have managed to secure only 3 per cent of the public pie. Based in Cork, and funded by the ITs and Enterprise Ireland, TecNet hopes to boost the research ratings of the ITs.

It is dedicated to promoting research co-operation among the ITs. The aim is to "deliver high quality research and development services to industry whilst also enhancing the R&D capability of the institutes of technology". This will be accomplished by building "virtual research groups" so researchers in a number of colleges can collaborate on projects.

The limited amount of funding secured by the ITs to date is hardly surprising, as the institutes (then regional technical colleges) did not have any formal research function until the early 1990s. They were essentially teaching organisations run the aegis of local Vocational Education Committees. This changed under the Regional Technical College Act (1992), which laid down a specific role for ITs in providing R&D to Irish industry. Each of the ITs is required to appoint a head of development, who takes responsibility for research and development.

ITs are still primarily teaching institutions, with lecturers usually shouldering a larger teaching load, with more contact hours (typically 16 hours a week) than their peers in universities. This does not leave much time for research. "I'm not saying that certain lecturers should be pulled out of teaching. A mixture of teaching and research is ideal, as it means lecturers are in touch with the wider world. The research won't just benefit industry, it will make the graduates more relevant," says O'Leary, a former teacher. To this end, he advocates fewer contact hours for lecturers involved in research.

But it's not just teaching hours that pose an obstacle to research in the ITs. O'Leary says. When it comes to attracting research funding, scale is also a problem. "While the individual ITs are carrying out excellent work in many different areas, they tend to lack the scale and mass to attract either private sector or major publicly funded research projects."

Speaking in a personal capacity, he is critical of the funding organisations. They make the rules - and these rules, by their nature, exclude ITs, he says. "For instance, Science Foundation Ireland (which has a fund of £560 million) would want to look at the way it allocates funds. If it's about funding basic research, that's fine. But, if it's supposed to stimulate Irish industry (and there has been a lot of rhetoric about the benefits to Irish industry), then the timescale is very long. There's a sense that a lot of the research is self-perpetuating." Criteria for selection for funding are usually peer review and academic qualifications. "Why not look at activated patents, products in the marketplace, books off the shelf?" asks O'Leary. The present rules, which fund particular types of research, will reinforce the existing status quo, with most of the money going to universities, he says.

The strength of the ITs lie in their close ties to industry, he says. "That's where they came from - supplying technicians-level people to industry. Their research will also be more industry-focused, more applied." However, the ITs will compete for SFI and other public funding from the State, says O'Leary.

But he has his eyes set on bigger game: EU funds, from the various framework programmes, and private sources. O'Leary is of the view that multinational companies seeking to locate in Ireland need to be "handcuffed. They'll get their tax breaks and their literate workforce but they must be required to invest in research and development."

TecNet has achieved some success in the EU arena. In conjunction with European partners, it has secured €1 million from the European Commission to carry out a project on teleworking. The study, which runs from last July to December 2002, will look at the technology required, work patterns adopted by teleworkers, quantification of output and the socialisation of work.

This project is particularly germane to an organisation that hopes to create research groups from geographically dispersed researchers.

Already, TecNet has established a virtual research group, the CSSN (Communications Software, Systems and Networks), which comprises researchers in Letterkenny IT, Cork IT and Waterford IT. "This group is currently negotiating a memorandum of understanding with a major international telecommunications company for a very significant research project," says O'Leary.

TecNet became operational in September 2000 so, like the ITs, it's a newcomer on the block. It held its first annual conference in Athlone last month. It should provide a one-stop shop, dealing with the funding application process, identifying the ITs with the capabilities required, bringing them together in virtual project teams and looking after specific legal details such as those involving intellectual property rights and contracts.

If O'Leary's enthusiasm could be translated into punts, or even euro, then the ITs will soon be moving up the research scale.