The Government plans to spend at least €3.8 billion on scientific research over the next seven years to 2013. A staggering €2.7 billion of this will go into third-level research and the private sector before the end of 2008, writes Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor
These remarkable levels of research spending are detailed in the Government's new Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, launched yesterday by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at Government Buildings in Dublin.
This is the first time an Irish Government has devised and published a comprehensive strategy for the development of science. It involved hammering out an agenda agreed by all departments involved in funding scientific research.
The goal is to help Ireland become a world player in research and achieve the stated Government ambition of developing a knowledge-driven economy.
In pursuit of this, it indicates that €2.7 billion will be spent on research before the end of 2008. This is more than the previous science budget, worth €2.54 billion and invested over six years to 2006.
The document sets targets for doubling the number of PhD graduates and increasing private-sector investment in R&D to €2.5 billion by 2013. It details how laboratory discoveries can be turned into new products, jobs and wealth, and indicates an increased role for public laboratories in initiating research in areas such as health, food, the marine, energy and the environment.
It has a section on science and society that describes the need to coax more students into science and keep them interested through Leaving Cert and third level.
It also details new bodies that would be formed to oversee the disbursement of the funding, including Technology Ireland, which will provide monitoring and oversight.
The strategy would form a "central plank" in the next national development plan to be launched in November, Mr Ahern said: "This is hugely strategically important."
Tánaiste Mary Harney said the investment in the research base over the past six years was akin to the investment that transformed Irish education in the 1960s and 1970s. The goal was to create an "innovation ecosystem" here.
Involvement in R&D was "critical" to our economic wellbeing and to job creation, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen told the press conference.
The plan had "full Government support" and would remain intact throughout its seven years. "This is an agenda which we simply have to embrace."
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin outlined the significance of the initiative. His department has taken the lead role in implementing the strategy. It represented a "genuinely cross-Government initiative" that would "significantly grow our world-class research capabilities".
Fine Gael education and science spokeswoman Olwyn Enright welcomed the strategy, but said the Government continued to miss EU targets for investment in science. It was a document "long on ambition and short on detail", she added.
Green Party spokesman on finance Dan Boyle also welcomed the investment but said it was being delivered "far too late". Employers' body Ibec said it would be a "major boost" to R&D in Ireland and to the business community.
Science Strategy: Main Points:
- Create an international reputation for the quality of Irish scientific research
- Provide funding to third-level institutions to develop their ability to conduct research
- Double the number of PhD graduates and improve career opportunities for them
- Support indigenous and multinational companies willing to conduct in-house research
- Assist the translation of quality research into saleable high-tech products and services
- Find new ways to encourage more primary and secondary students to remain involved in the sciences