Science Foundation Ireland is paving the way for innovation, writes Dick Ahlstrom.
Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has put more than €200 million into the hands of Irish-based researchers in the past 18 months, an investment aimed at transforming our economy. The goal is to move the Republic further up the economic value chain, in the process changing us from manufacturers into innovators.
Much has been accomplished in those few months, but much remains to be done, according to SFI's director general Dr William Harris. A man with apparently boundless energy in pursuit of his goals, he has been a dervish on behalf of Irish science, meeting academics, travelling abroad and everywhere selling a daring new idea - that the Republic can become a world player in advanced research.
SFI has made dozens of awards worth millions in support of Irish academics and bringing leading world-class scientists here to conduct research.
"Right now we are still very much in start-up mode," he says. Announced in March 2000, SFI still exists as a satellite of Forfas, the Government's science policy advisers.
That should change this month, however, when the Oireachtas passes the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Bill 2002 formallly establishing the foundation as a legal entity.
The push towards a knowledge-based economy started with the previous government's announcement of the National Development Plan, 2002-2006. It provided more than €2.5 billion for scientific research, with large amounts directed through SFI and through the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, administered by the Higher Education Authority.
Harris came over from a post in South Carolina to take on the new job as DG of the foundation. Despite early misgivings by the research community, he soon won over people to his and the Government's ambitions of making the Republic an international force in research.
The foundation's goals are mapped out in a recent document, Vision 2003-2007: People, Ideas and Partnerships for a Globally Competitive Irish Research System, and that long title gives a good indication of where Harris wants to go. It is about supporting our best researchers and bringing top people from abroad to join in the research effort here, the document suggests.
It is about supporting ideas that can lead to important scientific discoveries and it is about partnerships, both between academic institutions and between the scientists and the business community.
A perfect example of how this is working can be seen in the recent return to Dublin of Irish scientist Dr Dolores Cahill, Harris believes. She was tempted back, despite holding a senior position in the Max Planck Institute in Germany, to lead a research group in the new National Centre for Human Proteomics at the Royal college of Surgeons.
Cahill is one of the world's leading researchers in this field, he says, and she will now be pursuing this work here in Ireland. "The likes of Dolores Cahill and scientists like her are coming back, recognising the world-class opportunities here," says Harris.
He recently met some young Irish postdoctoral researchers working at the University of Pennsylvania. Most would have liked to work at home but left because of a lack of opportunities, a situation being addressed by the Government's heavy research investment.
"This is a huge brain drain and I hope that the investments being made by the HEA and SFI will be able to retain these people in Ireland and bring others back," states Harris.
These same students expressed concern however about what will happen to research funding when the National Development Plan runs its course. "They want to be able to bet that the Government would be willing to stick with its funding strategy," says Harris, something that he is now beginning to lobby for as well.
Yet he maintains it is too early to begin talking figures. "I am in the process of working though the legislation to get the foundation finally in place," he says, adding he wanted "to have some meat on the bones" before beginning to talk about investments beyond 2006.
One point he does hope to convince the Government on is the appointment of a senior scientific adviser, of the likes of Sir David King who is adviser to British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
He also plans to embark later this month on a national tour, meeting academics, politicians and the public, explaining "why research is important", he says. "We have to make the public understand why the Government is investing in this. We have to make sure there are no barriers that prevent co-operation."