Scientific research in Ireland has never seen anything like it - a Minister bearing gifts far beyond what anyone could have anticipated and with no apparent strings attached. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, and the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Mr Noel Treacy, have unveiled a research spending programme which will bring £180 mil lion into laboratories over the next three years.
It doesn't matter that the figures have been lightly basted to make them as impressive and apparently large as possible. If the plan works, delivered half from the Exchequer and half from the private sector, it will bring an unprecedented flush of money on to the research scene.
The plan calls for £180 million to be delivered over three years, £150 million for capital funding including equipment, laboratories, libraries and so forth, and £30 million in current funding which would be used directly to fund research.
The capital funding is "matched" money, half from the Exchequer and half from the private sector. This is to be raised directly by third-level institutions for approved projects. Of the Exchequer's £75 million, £20 million is a direct transfer from existing resources, the education technology investment fund, and does not represent new money. Another £25 million is aspirational and in the form of tax reliefs for corporate investors.
The remaining £30 million of capital funding, however, represents wholly new direct Exchequer monies which will provide additional cash for research infrastructure.
On the current side, the Exchequer will be putting up £22.5 million, £7.5 million of which is new funding. The private sector is expected to come up with £7.5 million to make a combined £30 million.
The scheme is a more substantially funded version of an existing scheme announced earlier this year. The Government in its 1997 Estimates approved an initial £5 million for the programme of scientific and technological re search in third-level institutions.
Unusually, the allocation was to the Department of Education and Science and not to the existing funder of scientific research, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The existing programme was based on individual projects presented by individuals or small groups of researchers. The new £5 million programme was based on submissions from third-level institutions, not individuals. They were asked to make a pitch for funding on the basis of the presentation of a strategic plan for their research effort.
This programme initially caused a flap among research scientists who feared the existing project-driven scheme would be lost. There was also some confusion over what was required to bid for the £5 million fund.
The new funding is a significant enlargement of the £5 million scheme. Third-level institutions including the institutes of technology may now make presentations in the hope of winning both capital funding and the money necessary to carry out the research.
The initial view taken after the £5 million announcement was that the institutes of technology would be left behind by the much larger, better-resourced universities but in fact Athlone IT and Carlow IT both won funding under this programme. This should encourage the other ITs to make serious, well-prepared bids for the new much larger pie. Fears remain, however, that the ITs may still be at a disadvantage because they have little experience in the difficult business of attracting outside private investment.
The president of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, Dr Danny O'Hare, who roundly welcomed the announcement, indicated that the conference was willing to create a fund which could be used to cover the private side of £7.5 million in current spending. This could be used by any successful applicant for funding, whether university or IT.
No such safety net exists, how- ever, on the capital side. The ITs may find it difficult to raise funding which will allow them to make bids for cash available on the capital side of the programme for the simple reason that they might not be able to cover their side of the financial equation.