Sir, - The level of collaborative scientific research between Northern and Southern universities is very poor, and the situation will worsen unless some remedial action is taken by the two governments.
All research costs money and the reason for the lack of North-South co-operation in this sector is that there is no funding available to support joint projects. Grant funding obtained is one of the main "performance indicators" being employed to assess the research activity of academics, and in the UK system, the grading awarded to university research centres/departments has enormous impact on the overall university reputation and the level of direct research funding given by the UK government. It also increasingly affects individual careers, as is shown by the recent move by Queen's University to replace 107 staff who were deemed not to have an acceptable level of research activity.
Given this very competitive environment, it is understandable that researchers in the Northern universities will seek to develop links with other groups which can lead to significant research funding opportunities, and therefore enhance the research grade of their departments. In the South, centralised research grading has not yet occurred, but assessment exercises are being introduced by individual universities in anticipation of such a move by the Government. It is worth noting that none of the schemes operated by Enterprise Ireland provides support for North-South projects. Furthermore, the peace and reconciliation funds are restricted to the six counties of Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the South, and a similar geographical restriction applies to the EU-Interreg programme. In the case of the latter, Dublin researchers are in the ridiculous situation of being able to apply for funding for projects with colleagues in Wales, but not in Northern Ireland.
Given this very unhealthy situation, I am increasingly concerned at the complete absence of scientific research as an area of potential co-operation in the current negotiations between the governments. Instead we have the "usual suspects" being trotted out (fisheries, agriculture, tourism, etc.). In scientific research we have an area which should attract broad community support, is clearly beneficial to all concerned, and could easily be built into an overall scheme for economic development. This type of activity is recognised by the EU as a critical part of the process of encouraging people with different cultures and attitudes to understand and respect each other's point of view, and thus develop conditions under which bigotry and racism cannot flourish. I therefore call upon the governments to add scientific research to the list of areas under consideration for cross-Border co-operation in the current discussions. - Yours, etc., Dr Dermot Diamond,
Research Director, Biomedical and Environmental Sensor Technology Centre, Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.