The research landscape in this State has been transformed following the decision in the National Development Plan to invest a remarkable £1.9 billion in science over the next seven years.
At least £560 million will go directly into advanced research, and never before has money like this been available despite the fact that so much of our economic boom is built on high-tech industry which grows directly from research.
With so much money at stake it is hardly surprising there has been fierce competition inside and outside Government for access to this substantial pot of gold. The focus over the past months since the release of the National Development Plan has been in particular on the £560 million allocation for ground-breaking research into two key areas, biotechnology and computing.
The vital question arising from this, however, is whether the money should be used to open two new stand-alone research institutes or be ploughed into the existing third-level research infrastructure to make it world class for these two sectors.
It now seems likely the original wish of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Forfas to have two new institutes which could provide a showcase for the best of Irish research will come to fruition. A Government source suggested the institutes would be agreed after the implementation body to be set up to get the Foresight Foundation under way has had a chance to consider the issue.
Clearly at least one of the institutes is on the cards if the Cabin et sticks with its original decision to provide more than £50 million to fund the planned Media Lab Europe facility using Foresight money as proposed by the Cabinet on February 22nd. The source also suggested, however, that they would not be "wasting a lot of money on bricks and mortar".
On Wednesday the Government's decision will be made public, but the campaign waged by the third-level research sector against the institutes looks as though it has failed to hit its mark. There is the added indignity that at least one of the institutes being funded has links with a university outside the State.
Future success in biotechnology and computing is seen as fundamental if we are to sustain the economic success which has flowed from our tiger economy. They were identified after a yearlong "foresight exercise" conducted by the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation on behalf of Forfas. The project was carried out at the behest of the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Noel Treacy.
ICSTI set itself a 15-year horizon, trying to determine what Ireland needed to do in eight selected areas if we were to carry forward the economic boom. Its report, published last May, made dozens of recommendations, but in particular asked that £560 million be set aside to develop world-class expertise in biotechnology and computing. The Government accepted the ICSTI recommendations in full and consequently announced the Foresight Fund would be established.
Last November the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment (ETE) circulated a memorandum to all Departments, a discussion document on how to make use of the Foresight Fund. It made certain recommendations, including that two stand-alone institutes for biotechnology and computer research be set up.
An initial Government decision on how to use the fund finally came - two months late - on February 22nd following a Cabinet meeting at which final proposals were put. Sources indicate that a surprising number of Ministers decided to intervene during the discussion.
The decision includes a proposal for the £50 million allocation to the MLE, the European wing of a similar research institute established by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT agreed in December to open MLE in Dublin and at the time the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the State would provide £28 million. It now appears the investment will be almost twice as high and, surprisingly, it is to come from the Foresight Fund.
This decision has been taken despite the fact the Foresight Foundation, which will be charged with overseeing the fund, has yet to be established. The Government decision provides for an eight-person implementation body chaired by a representative of ETE which will have three months to get the Foresight programme up and running.
The written Cabinet decision indicates the body will include one representative each from Forfas, the Higher Education Authority, the Health Research Board and the Combined Heads of the Irish Universities, plus three prominent researchers with a track record in research linked to industry.
Mr Don Thornhill of the HEA and Dr Michael Murphy of the HRB are expected to join this body, although no formal approach has yet been made to co-opt them. There are suggestions at senior level that the president of UCC, Prof Gerry Wrixon, will be the CHIU official and two names have emerged as a possible chairman, Mr Ronnie Long and Mr Paul Haran of ETE.