Scientific research in Ireland received a significant boost yesterday with the award of £56 million by Science Foundation Ireland to 10 researchers and their teams.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said: "This is the largest investment in scientific research in our history and it will have incalculable effects on Ireland's international reputation and our ability to attract research."
SFI, the national foundation for excellence in scientific research, manages the Technology Foresight Fund of £560 million which will support research into information technology and biotechnology.
There were 79 eligible proposals for the first tranche of funds and 12 projects were chosen. Contracts have been signed by 10 of the principal researchers, including six scientists already working in Ireland and four scientists from the UK and the US. The successful candidates were judged by international peer review as "outstanding scientists in their fields within biotechnology and information and communications technologies".
Six of the research groups will be based in TCD, with four of the principal researchers already working there. Two projects will be based in UCC and one each in DIT and NUI Maynooth. There were no women among the award recipients.
The principal investigators appointed in the biotechnology sector were Prof Seamus Martin, of TCD; Prof Kingston Mills of NUI Maynooth (moving to TCD); and Prof Ken Wolfe of TCD. Appointees in information and communications technology were Prof Michael Coey, of TCD; Prof Eugene Freuder, of the University of New Hampshire, US, (moving to UCC); Dr Douglas Leith, of the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, (moving to NUI Maynooth); Prof John Lewis of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (moving to DIT); Prof Eoin O'Reilly, of the University of Surrey (moving to UCC); Prof John Pethica, of the University of Oxford (moving to TCD); and Dr Igor Shvets of TCD.
Mr John Travers, CEO of Forfas and acting director general of SFI, said: "Making the resources available in Ireland means that we will be able to retain some very good people who might otherwise have left. We will also attract to Ireland people with different experience and knowledge bases. In turn, these will attract some of the best undergraduate and postgraduate students."
Dr William Harris, who becomes director general of SFI in September, said: "The unique thing Ireland is doing is giving birth to an institution that will energise universities and re search capacity in Ireland to a higher level. It will make this a place where the best researchers in the world want to be."
Prof Seamus Martin of TCD said £5 million was significant in research terms. "It will enable my team to buy some very sensitive and powerful technologies, such as protein mass spectrometery, which are not widely available in Ireland. We will use these technologies to detect changes in cells with exquisite sensitivity."
There would also be practical benefits for researchers, in terms of increased salaries. Post-doctorate researchers were traditionally poorly paid, with no pension benefits, he said. Ms Harney said the awards were the culmination of the first call for proposals by SFI, with a further £500 million to be invested in the years ahead.