For the first time the Government last year recruited a chief science adviser. What does he do? Dick Ahlstrom talks to Dr Barry McSweeney.
The Government's long anticipated seven-year spending plan for scientific research until 2013 looks set for publication before the end of this year.
Its proposals will form a key element of the State's next national development plan, given the Government's continued determination to achieve a knowledge-based economy.
Central to the development of this new spending scheme is an analysis of our existing strengths and weaknesses on the research front. This Swot [strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats] analysis was delivered to Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheál Martin on March 31st last by the chief science advisor to government, Dr Barry McSweeney.
Findings from the Swot, which contains aspects relating to education, public and privately-funded research, commercialisation, innovation and social barriers to acceptance among others, are now being integrated into a national strategy for research.
The analysis is just one of a collection of issues being pursued by Dr McSweeney and his small team since the establishment of the chief scientist post.
He admits that last September he had to "hit the ground running" given a change of minister from Mary Harney to Micheál Martin just two weeks after the new adviser's arrival.
There was no job description for him to work from, a shock after leaving the heavily bureaucratised EU post as head of the Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy.
He produced a work programme that was agreed last December by the new Cabinet Committee on Science and Technology, but this bore little resemblance to what Dr McSweeney has spent the last nine months doing - preparing the groundwork for a national science strategy.
The work programme made no reference to a national strategy. Nor did it refer to the "funders group" he now chairs, a collection of top officials and civil servants responsible for disbursing State research funding from a number of Government departments.
"And yet these are the two things that have preoccupied me and my team in recent months," said Dr McSweeney.
Nor did he have any warning about the Swot, first referred to in a major policy speech made by Mr Martin last November 4th.
"I found out the Swot was in the speech the night before. This had come earlier than I had anticipated. I had no idea when I started work," he said.
He was given three months to deliver the analysis, prepared in co-operation with a team of volunteers from industry, academia and Government agencies.
There were participants from Elan, Lucent, Kerry Group, Iona, Intel and Wyeth among others. There were leading scientists from TCD, UCD, UCC and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and members from the Irish Management Institute, the EPA and CHIU.
"I started with Government policy," said Dr McSweeney, who directed the Swot group. "It was Government policy that Ireland would become a knowledge-based economy. I had a completely free hand. The Swot has been one of the main inputs to the national strategy. The output of this was going to be very influential."
The Swot document very quickly prompted a second study, still ongoing, by the funders' group. This body, which first met in April, included representatives from all key funders including SFI, Enterprise Ireland, the Health Research Board, Higher Education Authority, the research councils and others, and its deliberations continue as the national policy and a "strategic implementation plan" forms.
"The funders' group was asked to make a very important statement on the capacity and coherence of the public research system. While the Swot was the broad basis, the funders' group was very detailed. The Swot was a strategic document, but the work of the funders really galvanised the whole process."
Dr McSweeney dismissed the notion that the Swot, currently being considered by the Government's Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (IDC), is his own report.
While he admitted to a lot of hard work in delivering the Swot in three months, he pointed to the great effort and time contributed for free by industrial and academic participants who took part in the analysis.
"It is not my plan - it is a plan from the IDC that I have been a part of. It is a national plan and everyone has to buy into this."
If it is anyone's plan, it is that of Forfás senior science policy expert Ned Costello, who is "editor in chief" of the plan and chair of the IDC, added Dr McSweeney.
What he does lay claim to is the unique structure of his office, "getting it established in a way that is productive without being threatening".
"It is meant to challenge the status quo. It is oversight. If you ask what me and my office does, it is catalysing change. You are using a logical way of affecting change, by encouraging co-operation with people."
He viewed bringing change to the educational system as a key part of what his office will seek to accomplish in the coming years. "Education has to be addressed. There are challenges that need to be taken up."
This relates to output of graduates and postgraduate researchers, but also to interventions in primary and secondary schools. The whole issue could be looked at in a very simple way, he suggested. Is the school system here able to deliver people that can sustain the knowledge-based economy into the future?
As a reflection of the importance he places on this, he decided to base his deputy, Dr Carol Gibbons, in the Department of Education and Science.
"This is probably the most strategic thing I have done this year. It is vital because I am independent from any agency or department. Education is fundamental, so placing half the office in the department is important."
Work continues on the national research strategy, but separately Dr McSweeney is planning a series of workshops starting later this year. The first, on November 29th, will be on food and sustainable agriculture, with energy following in January.
Dr Barry McSweeney: A life in science
2000-2005: Worked in the EU's DG Research as head of the joint research centre in Ispra, Italy. In charge of 2,500 staff in seven research centres.
1995-2000: Responsible for the development of the EU's Marie Curie research mobility programme, which provides European training placements for pre and post-doctoral researchers. During his tenure its budget went from €20 million a year to €300 million a year and provided positions for about 35,000 European researchers.
1987-1995: Headed BioResearch Ireland, established by Government as a way to promote and commercialise biotechnology research. Five major research centres were established in UCC, UCD, DCU, TCD and NUI Galway to support its activities.
Pre-1995: Did BSc in biochemistry at UCC and MSc in clinical biochemistry at TCD. Did research in Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, developing clinical tests for ammonia, valuable in screening for Reyes syndrome. Worked in research in Warner Lambert and in the Wolfson Research Centre in Newcastle. Completed doctorate at Pacific Western, California, an "earned PhD" based on a thesis and course work plus publications, BRI involvement and industrial research.
As chief science advisor: Participates in meetings of the Government's Cabinet Committee on Science and Technology, chaired by Minister Micheál Martin, and its Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, chaired by Ned Costello of Forfás. Also participates in meetings of the independent Advisory Science Council and chairs the Government's Iodine Review Group
Portrait: Cyril Byrne