SCIENCE FOUNDATION IRELAND:Bringing researchers and scientists together to share ideas and experiences is central to convergent scientific research
CONVERGENCE has been a buzz word in the communications and media sectors for some years now. The boundaries between various media are becoming blurred to the extent that it is now possible to see people watching live English premier league football matches on their mobile phones.
But the convergence of different technologies and scientific disciplines is by no means limited to the communications sector. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) is holding its annual Science Summit event, this year entitled Convergent Worlds, in Kilkenny on November 19th. The summit is an event for SFI researchers and an opportunity for them to meet colleagues from throughout the country working on diverse areas of research in science, engineering and technology.
Keynote speakers at this year's summit include Prof Dan Nocera, a leading expert in energy research, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Prof Robert Huber, Nobel Prize winner for structural biology, whose work stretches from physics to biology and chemistry; and Prof Iain Mattaj, director general of EMBL, one of the world's most successful research organisations that brings together scientists with diverse backgrounds in a truly interdisciplinary environment.
"I think this is a great topic," says SFI director general Prof Frank Gannon. "I firmly believe convergence will be king in the future. It's one of those concepts that you have to explain by examples really."
And he has many such examples. "Convergence is what happens when two things come together to form something different. One analogy in the sporting world at present is the International Rules football series. Gaelic Football and Aussie Rules have come together to create a different sport."
He also uses a kitchen metaphor. "If you look at baking, no one would dream of eating flour or eggs separately without doing anything to them. When you combine them in a certain way and bake them in an oven you end up with a very appetising cake. In science, it's a question of putting things together and doing something with them that hasn't been done."
One classic example of convergent technologies in action is the worldwide web itself, developed by the team of scientists at the Cern nuclear research organisation in Switzerland currently famed for the Large Hadron Collider experiment.
In the late 1980s, the team had grown frustrated with the rather rudimentary means of internet communication available to them and other researchers around the world. As a consequence, software experts created the hypertext mark-up language (html) and various other elements which led to the creation of the information-rich worldwide web which has become an essential part of everyday life.
Gannon explains that convergence requires new thinking on the parts of those involved. "Industries have tended to concentrate on their own space," he says. "But the question is: 'Where will new markets come from?' Industries have to bring knowledge of their own areas and add it to that of others to create something new. They have to move from where they are - this is what is driving convergence."
This will not necessarily involve businesses folding. "When you look at businesses coming together, it tends to be in the form of alliances and joint ventures, rather than mergers. The companies involved stick to their core businesses while creating something new together."
He uses the example of the modern trend in nutraceutical foods to illustrate this. These are foods enhanced through the addition of certain health-giving substances or properties and are generally created by alliances between traditional food companies and specialist ingredients companies. Each retains their own business, but they come together to develop new products.
Another growth area for convergence is energy. "SFI is currently supporting research which is seeing how plants capture sunlight and convert it to energy," says Gannon. "The next stage involves a science known as biomimetics where, having found out what nature does, we copy it. This current research has fantastic potential, given rising energy costs. It will bring botanists and engineers together to see if the biological processes can be mimicked. This requires a lot of understanding of very diverse areas."
Another piece of convergent research with very practical implications, which is being supported by SFI, is in healthcare. Research has shown that some seven in 10 echocardiograms are unnecessary and cost US medical insurance companies $1 billion annually. But the tragedy of sudden cardiac death among young people due to undiagnosed cardiac problems is an avoidable one if detected early enough.
Researchers at UCD, funded by SFI, are collaborating with cardiologists in St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin and the US-based Zargis Medical Corporation to create a cost-effective acoustic imaging apparatus which creates an image of the beating heart from sound waves, revealing defects and anomalies non-invasively. It is hoped the product will save both lives and money.
Another healthcare-related project involves Galway-based medical devices manufacturer Medtronics. "This company manufactures stents which, at their most basic, are springs which keep arteries open for people with heart conditions," says Gannon. "However, they have moved into derivatised stents over the years and now produce devices with slow-release drugs embedded. They are no longer a single-function device - in itself the result of convergence."
The company is also a partner in the SFI Regenerative Medicine Institute (Remedi) Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology (CSET).
Based at NUI Galway, Remedi was established in 2003 through a €14.9 million SFI award. Its researchers conduct basic and applied research in regenerative medicine, an emerging field that combines the technologies of gene therapy and adult stem cell therapy. The goal is to use cells and genes to regenerate healthy tissues that can be used to repair or replace other tissues and organs.
"If research is successful, stents could be used to deliver cells and genes to where they are required to regenerate damaged tissues and organs," says Gannon.
Looking to the future he reiterates his view of the importance of convergence.
"Convergence will be king. It will be increasingly difficult for companies to survive in their own particular niches and they are going to have to go outside of them to succeed. Ireland is particularly well placed in this regard. Our small size is a virtue in terms of the fact that our scientists and researchers from different disciplines meet and talk regularly and are more willing to collaborate with each other as a result. Also, we have many of the world's leading pharmaceutical and ICT companies located here and many of them also have a significant research component in Ireland as well. It is in these areas that we are likely to see significant collaborations in the future.
"Science Foundation Ireland's policies have always promoted inter-disciplinarity, we have been supporting people on the borders of different areas and this will pay dividends now. Part of the reason why we have been doing this is because Ireland can be good at convergence. Also, this is something new where we don't have to play catch-up with other countries. We have the opportunity to establish a leadership position in this field and we are trying to grasp it."
In this context he welcomes the Government's continuing commitment to research. "The fact that our funding was increased in the recent Budget shows that the Government does understand the importance of the interaction between science and industry and it really is a strong statement of commitment to doing what's needed for our future economic growth," he says. "We are engaged in the conversion of excellent science into economic advantage for Ireland."
