UCD's new chairman, Kieran McGowan, wants to bring a research-driven ethos to his alma mater and already has plans on how to win funding to that end, writes Dominic Coyle.

When Ireland's largest university college decided to split the role of president and chairman of its governing authority, it turned to a figure synonymous with the recent development of the modern Irish economy.

Kieran McGowan was chief executive of IDA Ireland for most of the halcyon 1990s and is well placed to understand the economy's changing requirements and the firms recruiting within it. He returns to his alma mater at UCD amid a growing recognition of the need to invest in the research capabilities of Irish graduates and the colleges they pass through.

"Ireland is moving already from a largely production-driven economy to a more innovative and inventions-driven economy and UCD and the other universities have to be the engine driving that transition," he says.

The quality of Ireland's undergraduates is, he says, a key factor in ensuring that Ireland has consistently secured a disproportionate amount of foreign direct investment. "UCD and the other universities have been a huge part of the attractiveness of Ireland in what you might call the old model and, as the transition is happening, I think their role is more central, to be honest. The issue now is to retain those companies and to recruit a new wave of more research-intensive companies."

The onus in doing that is on the universities, he argues. "I feel that you cannot get to the stage of being strong in industrial research unless you build a strong base at undergraduate and post-graduate level."

Of course, creating a research-driven environment raises the inevitable question of funding.

"Irish universities are increasingly in a competitive environment from the point of view of the young people coming up through the ranks," he says. "They now have choices as to which university to go to and that competition is getting more intense and international. UCD has to benchmark itself against the international colleges and be funded to a level that is competitive with the funding levels of those international colleges against whom it is competing for students."

He refers to comments by incoming UCD president Dr Hugh Brady in his recent inaugural lecture about the $250 million (€199 million) research budgets of just one of the teaching hospitals of Harvard University. Throwing down a challenge, Dr Brady said: "While your question for me might be 'Can we afford to do this?', my question for you is, bluntly 'Can we afford not to?' "

Mr McGowan accepts there has been major improvement in funding in recent years. "There has been a completely new era in recognising the importance of research funding both in the country and in its universities," he says. "However, it has to go further because the overall ball game has been enhanced considerably."

A more positive aspect of the growth of a research culture in Ireland, says Mr McGowan, has been the trend by rival institutions to collaborate on projects thereby maximising the funding and expertise available.

"One way I came into this area was through an initiative founded by Hugh Brady and his counterpart at Trinity College, which was called the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre. A joint research company, it was funded by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions from the Higher Education Authority. The Royal College of Surgeons has since come aboard.

"Recognising the need for connections with industry and, hopefully, for research links from the companies to the college, the centre brought several industry figures on to the board." These include the head of research and development at Wyeth, which is building a major plant on the outskirts of Dublin and Ronan O'Caoimh, a founder of Trinity Biotech, which has recently released in the US a breakthrough 10-minute test for HIV.

"So we accept there is a need for different sources to be tapped for funding but there is also a need for the basic level of funding to be enhanced," he says, referring to Government support for research at institutions around the State. "We are competing with other institutions which are starting off ahead of us anyway and they are keeping up their investment as time goes on. We have to recognise the nature of the internationally competitive game we are in."

In his new role as chairman, Mr McGowan sees his role as primarily supporting the president and ensuring the agenda he has laid out is implemented. "I said at my first meeting with the governing authority that what attracted me about Hugh Brady was that he is the embodiment of all the positive qualities that I spent half my life talking about. He's young, he's articulate, he's dynamic and he's visionary, all the things we talked about when going around companies in America with the IDA."

Since stepping down at IDA Ireland in 1998, Mr McGowan has also built up an impressive portfolio of boardroom seats. He is a non-executive director at some of Ireland's leading public companies, including CRH, Irish Life & Permanent, Elan, United Drug as well as Enterprise Ireland and several private firms.

Mr McGowan admits that after a lifetime encouraging the development of the State's business infrastructure, he got "a buzz" out of his involvement with the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre. That involvement and his current post are, he argues, connected with his IDA days. It all ties in very much with being the engine driving the next phase of development," he says. "I was chuffed to be asked to be chairman and delighted to take it up."

A graduate of the commerce faculty back in 1973, whose four children also passed through the college, he says it gave all of them "a great start" in life.

"We have a new president. He's a young guy but he has a lot of international experience and he has set out his stall very clearly. The governing authority needs to support him to make sure the agenda is not something he just speaks about but something he delivers on. That will be the test of whether we are effective."

That agenda laid down by Dr Brady is ambitious. Apart from the need to provide the human capital for our future knowledge-driven economy, the incoming president has set a target of September 2005 for the full semesterisation of the college. By that time, he also wants to see UCD offering a modular structure where students in one faculty could dip into courses of interest in areas outside their study focus and greatly enhance access to students unable to participate in the current intensive full-time programme.

It is hardly a surprise then that Dr Brady in his first meeting with the governing authority following his appointment insisted on splitting the roles, which traditionally were both held by the president.

As a signal of his intent to shake up the way the university does business, the move away from the uncomfortable position where the effective chief executive of the college reported to a board led by himself was a declaration of intent.

But does Mr McGowan worry that Dr Brady's American background might create tensions that would distract UCD from its goals? "The governing authority chose Hugh so they knew they were choosing someone in a different mount than before."