Last week's launch of the final phase of the Government's £230 million programme for research in third-level institutions (PRTLI) for the period 2000-2003 has been greeted with enthusiasm by the academic community.

The project's final phase is worth £65 million, of which the State will provide £25 million for capital expenditure and £15 million for current costs. The remaining £25 million will be supplied by the institutions as matching funding. As in the first round, colleges will compete for funding. Applications will be assessed by an international panel of experts, who are expected to draw up a shortlist by next April. The final decisions will be announced in July.

Assessment criteria include evidence of strategic planning, the quality of the research, including the institutions' evaluation procedures and the relationship between research programmes and the institutions' teaching programmes. Interinstitutional co-operation is also to be encouraged.

Researchers are particularly enthusiastic about the fact that in this cycle, greater discretion in relation to the breakdown between capital and current expenditure is allowed. Only £30 million of the first cycle's £180 million was allocated to current spending.

Over the past two years, the Government has sought to bring the importance of research into the centre of public policy on education, the Minister for Education and Science said at the launch. "Without world-class research you cannot have a world-class education system. This applies to all levels and in every discipline," he said.

Referring to the £550 million allocated to third-level research in the National Development Plan, the Minister noted that the funding would involve finding a balance between the large-scale institutional programmes and the more dispersed individual and team-focused approach. This will be welcome news to reseachers, many of whom fear that there will be an overemphasis on a small number of prestige projects at the expense of small-scale, even obscure projects, which could develop into major innovations.

At the launch, the thorny issue of who will distribute future research funding - the HEA or specially established research councils - was raised. The Minister is "reflecting on the matter", he said.

It was back in 1997 that the Minister asked senior UCD academic Dr Maurice Bric to prepare a brief on the establishment of a research council for the humanities and social sciences. This report has now been delivered to the Minister, who is expected to make an announcement tomorrow.

"We will have to consider the structures which may or may not be required when a programme of such size and duration is involved," the Minister said. "We are all only now learning how to effectively build our capacity to establish and maintain ambitious research programmes and there is much work left to be done."

Meanwhile, Dr Pat Fotrell, who is chairman of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU), heaped praise on the role the HEA has played in the current process, which he described as "an excellent model for the disbursal of state investment under the National Development Plan".

Any move to confirm the HEA in the role is likely to be firmly resisted by academics, who believe that the authority is becoming too powerful. Many university researchers have called repeatedly for the establishment of research councils, which would develop national research policies, invite applications and oversee the distribution of funding.