The Republic has long been a victim of the intellectual "brain drain". Over the years, literally thousands of our finest scientific minds left for greener pastures abroad, the majority leaving because the research funding wasn't available to keep them here.
The new Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, launched this week by the Minister for Education and Science, should help to reduce this loss. It has £75 million available up to 2005 to fund continuing research activities by our postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers.
Emigration in recent years has not been as severe as the 1980s, when Irish graduates poured out of the State in their tens of thousands. Many of our brightest have carved a name for themselves in adopted universities and institutes in the US, Britain and Australia, but their gain has been our loss.
Many left because of a lack of funding for research. State funding just wasn't being committed to research and the result was the departure of both graduates and frustrated senior academics.
The Minister, Dr Woods, acknowledged the paltry funding when he launched the council on Tuesday. "As you will all be keenly aware, Ireland's record in supporting academic research in the sciences and other disciplines traditionally had not been a fantastic one", he told guests. "When this Government took office in 1997, funding dedicated exclusively to scientific and technological educational research amounted to only £5 million. Yet even this small step was hailed at the time as a significant breakthrough."
Times have changed with the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, which has £500 million to spend, and Science Foundation Ireland, which has a matching amount. Now to this can be added another £75 million, which will support basic research in science, technology and engineering.
The chair of the new body, Trinity's Provost, Dr Tom Mitchell, described the launch as an important day for Irish science "because we will have a permanent and an annual fund for basic research".
The Minister, speaking afterwards to The Irish Times, did not go quite that far. It would be a matter for the next development plan, he said, but he indicated his willingness to see the fund grow. "If it goes well, it will be improved."
Dr Mitchell said that the fund would have three strands, supporting graduates and post-doctoral students but, interestingly, also the existing research community, including academics.
This means that the fund will back projects in much the same way as does the existing £6 million Enterprise Ireland scheme for basic research, a programme which has been running successfully for years.
To Dr Mitchell, it "doesn't make sense" to have two programmes which are so similar. He suggested that they might be rolled together, although Enterprise Ireland might have something to say about this.
Students will be able to make bids for funding on a project basis similar to the existing EI programme. Selection will be by peer review, but the bottom line will be quality, according to the Minister, who said that the council was "setting a very high standard". Dr Mitchell echoes this, saying: "It will be making awards on basic merit."
Enterprise Ireland is represented on the council, which includes a good mix of organisations and individuals. The universities and institutes are well represented, as are other bodies, including IBEC, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, Bord na Mona, Teagasc and the Marine Institute.
One particularly encouraging point made by Dr Mitchell related to Ireland's need to compete on the world market to retain its own graduates and find others abroad. This equates to money from a student's perspective and annual awards worth £15,000 to £20,000 are on the cards. "The competition here is global," Dr Mitchell said.