The State will put £500 million into very high-quality scientific research in the next five years via the new Science Foundation Ireland. Many scientists are concerned, however, that the big funding will only support a very few top research teams, leaving the majority of scientists starved for cash.
The final announcement about the initial 10 projects to be supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is long overdue.
It was originally expected some months ago, and the delays have been attributed to an extra level of care applied by SFI organisers. The suggestion is they want to get what is a wholly new departure for Irish science exactly right.
The funding is to go to senior researchers and will also bring in scientists from abroad, attracted by the high level of individual funding.
Each project, selected after considerable scrutiny by international peers and after site visits to confirm facilities, can receive up to £1 million a year for five years.
The Irish Research Scientists' Association (IRSA) has expressed concern, however, that this concentration of funding among the very best will leave too many good scientists and projects struggling for financial support.
No one has a problem with £1 million a year in support of quality research, explained Dr Edmond Magner, a lecturer in the Chemical and Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Limerick and chair of IRSA. "The difficulty is that it is such a top-heavy approach."
The SFI cash will be used in support of key individuals, researchers who will build teams around themselves which will remain attached to a specific institution.
This is separate from another £500 million research fund disbursed by the Higher Education Agency under the programme for research in third-level institutions.
This supports the development of a "strategic" approach to research, allowing the institutions to excel in areas they view as of strategic importance to their development.
The huge funding going into these two areas dwarfs the support devoted to a third funding pillar, the project-based approach.
This involves finding excellent individual projects which receive a low level of funding which supports them for two or three years.
This methodology is applied here via Enterprise Ireland's very effective basic research grant scheme. Independent reviews of this scheme have shown that extremely good value is obtained from the available funding.
The problem, Dr Magner said, was the comparatively low level of State support for the scheme. Funding of £6.33 million is available this year, which sustains ongoing projects and will initiate 69 new projects in universities and institutes.
While this amount is up substantially from the 2000 figure of £4.5 million, it is still small compared to the SFI or HEA funding.
Yet the scheme will reach many more scientists and provide work for many postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers.
"It gives people training and exposes everyone to cutting-edge science," Dr Magner said. Projects funded under the scheme also provided the young researchers needed to populate larger programmes.
"You need a two-pronged approach," he said, as applied in the US. There the National Science Foundation backs the big programmes but also makes substantial funding available for individual projects.
While the $50,000 to $100,000 per project might be a bit rich for Irish budgets, credible funding should also be available here. "You don't have to be a chaired professor at MIT to get one of those grants," Dr Magner said.
If compared to the US on a per-capita basis £45 million should be made available each year under the Enterprise Ireland basic research scheme. Dr Magner said just £5 million or £6 million more would have a tremendous impact on research in Ireland.
"You have to spread it and give other people opportunities as well," he said. The Government should shore up the basic grant scheme and have it well funded.
This would move resources over a much wider area, he said, something that would benefit the research scene and provide many more young research scientists than would come from the large programmes.
Details of the first SFI funding round is expected this month. Site visits of applicants expected to receive funding have been made, and assessments prepared by the international review group that considered each application have been sent to institutions that applied for SFI funding.