RESEARCHERS HERE must maintain focus on their work’s value as they face stiff international competition for extremely limited funding, says the director of one of Ireland’s leading research bodies.

Prof Mike Hinchey had a long relationship with international academia before returning to his native city of Limerick to be a director at Lero, the Irish software engineering research centre.

After graduating from University of Limerick, he studied at Oxford and Cambridge – earning both a Master’s and PhD in computation and computer science, respectively.

He has since gone on to work as a professor in the University of Nebraska, Queen’s in Belfast, New Jersey IT, Sweden’s University of Skövde and Loyola College in Maryland.

However, it is his many years working for Nasa for which he is perhaps best known – although, according to Hinchey that began as somewhat of an accident.

Hinchey came to the attention of the American space agency when he was invited along to a meeting a colleague of his was to have with them. At the time, Hinchey was interested in formal methods – the construction of mathematical techniques to test the accuracy robustness of theories – and, as it transpired, Nasa was too.

“They didn’t want to talk to anybody else there,” he says. “They asked me to come and give them a few classes and eventually there were positions opening up.”

Hinchey was soon taken on as an “accepted hire”, which allowed agencies such as Nasa to employ people from outside the US civil service. The role was only intended as a temporary one and so could only last four years – but when it expired, Nasa sought to extend it to six.

“At the end of that I left, but within a few weeks they were calling asking how they would do this, how to do that,” he says. “Eventually I became a ‘special government employee’ – that’s continued ever since.”

Hinchey says he particularly likes introducing himself to other US civil servants by his official title – “expert” – something he claims is unique within the American public sector.

In 2008, while working at Loyola University, Hinchey applied for the position of co-director at Lero, a role he began working in in June of that year. Accepting it meant leaving his post in Maryland but, perhaps more importantly, it also required the blessing of Nasa – something that was not generally easy to obtain, due to the agency’s wish to protect its sensitive information.

“I had to get permission from Nasa to accept it and was approved within three days,” he said. “I suppose Ireland is seen as a friendly country and so wasn’t seen as a threat.”

Lero, which had been established in 2005 with Prof Kevin Ryan at the helm, was created as a centre for excellence for software engineering in the country.

Based in the University of Limerick, the body was a collaborative effort between the country’s main third-level institutes, with support coming from Government, the EU and the European Space Agency.

According to Hinchey, the centre’s focus has expanded over the years and now covers areas such as aerospace, financial services, open source software and global software development.

An area of particular focus for them at the moment is software programmed to adapt to change, so that it can react to its environment and continue performing optimally.

According to Hinchey, their focus comes from a “mixture of areas we’re interested in that we do research around, but also from people who come to us”.

This would generally take the shape of a company that is seeking a solution to a certain problem. Hinchey says this kind of contact with business – be it small Irish start-ups or multinationals – is critical to keeping Lero’s work relevant to the needs of industry.

He cites the medical devices industry as a good example of future opportunity too, with Ireland’s strength in the area a major advantage, should Lero want to find out what needs the sector has.

“You have to be mindful that you don’t just do pie-in-the-sky research,” he says. “Nobody should be working in ivory towers in this environment.”

A key part of the centre’s work is also helping form relationships between different parties. In a recent case, Lero brokered a relationship between an Irish company, which was in need of a supercomputer, and global giant IBM.

From these relationships Lero can then generate revenue, be it through the licensing of technology, sale of products, creation of partnerships or spinning off of start-ups.

However, business-relevant research is not just important in generating revenue at the end of the process; financial pressure being felt internationally makes it an important factor in getting funding to begin with.

With more bodies than ever seeking funding from a limited international pot, only those that have a strong track record in putting money to good use can do well.

“Funding availability is going to be a problem for all research groups,” says Hinchey. “There’s more competition and greater demand for returns on research.”

He says the number of applications for EU funding is increasing exponentially, and groups are having to spend more time chasing the same pot of money.

However, Hinchey is also conscious that the centre does not become too cash-focused, which he feels would ultimately damage the work it does.

“If you only do research that will lead to jobs in a certain amount of time, then you’re only doing applied research,” he says. “You can’t be 100 per cent reactive, you need to be proactive too, so you’re ready when companies come to you looking for help.”

He accepts that there is a constant conflict there for groups such as Lero, which must balance the need for funds with the quality of the work they do. However, he says that this is an international problem – and not just one facing Irish researchers.

“It’s important we don’t lose track of just running after the money and chasing the short-term opportunities,” he says.

“We need to ensure that what we invest is going to produce the goods in the long term.”