New opportunities are emerging for Irish researchers as a huge increase in funding is allocated to science, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Irish researchers have the potential to double the amount of funding received from the EU's new €50 billion science budget. It would push to €400 million the support received by scientists working here.
This ambitious goal was set by Dr Imelda Lambkin who will lead the Irish charge on the EU's science budget, Framework Programme 7 (FP7). Her role is a new appointment, announced last week by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin.
As the first national director for the Framework Programme, Lambkin will head a dedicated office of 11 based in Enterprise Ireland and monitor the efforts of a further 33 full time "national contact points", individuals who will work full time to help promote access to FP7 funding, she explains.
The Government decided to encourage greater access to FP7, which runs from 2007-2013, as a way to leverage more from the State's own investment in scientific research. "We have to have our support network working in a way that is aligned with the Framework Programme," she says.
"The goal is to co-ordinate the activity around FP7. For FP6 we had a network of support but we really didn't have a co-ordinated approach. Also the nature of research in Ireland has changed. It is a new interactive environment and we have to work in new ways to support that."
For this reason we have our first national director and dedicated office to help explain the opportunities available to scientists here. "The national information and support office is the primary entry point, the first contact point for people in Ireland who have no knowledge of the framework programmes," says Lambkin.
Another key element is the 33 national contact points. These are a mix of academic researchers and individuals within organisations such as Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Universities Association, the Environmental Protection Agency and the two research councils for science and the humanities to name a few.
About half are based here and half are "national delegates" to Brussels where they work for a number of Irish organisations. They are "the people who spread the word" she adds and keep interest in FP7 sharp. "They raise awareness of the programme calls for funding from the Commission."
The idea overall is to run a more consistent campaign on behalf of Ireland. "FP6 was never really co-ordinated in Ireland, but we have a lot of success stories from that programme," says Lambkin.
Researchers here have won funding worth €200 million to date from FP6, which ran from 2000-2006. Most of this, about 70 per cent, went to academic researchers, 20 per cent to company-based scientists in small to medium sized enterprises and the final 10 per cent went to State owned laboratories, she says.
The national research strategy closely follows key areas for funding under FP7 including information and communications technology, life sciences, nanotechnology and food quality and safety.
"We need to look at each of these areas individually, each is very different," she says. The big difference with FP7 is the ideas programme. It is similar to SFI in that it funds individual projects." Some €7.5 billion is available under this heading.
"The message I am putting out is we have a very strong support system. We are very positive about the benefits for Ireland and we are looking for people to come to us."
More information is available from the web site, www.fp7-ireland.com.