A strong panel of international scientists was assembled by the Higher Education Authority to assess research proposals for funding under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions.
Its two funding rounds in 1999 and 2000 have made £220 million available to Irish researchers. Most members were involved in both rounds, including Prof Don Randel, president of the University of Chicago; Prof Dorothy Guy-Ohlson, of the Swedish Museum of Natural History and a member of that country's Natural Science Research Council; Prof William B. Motherwell, of University College London and chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; Prof Robert Erikson, secretary general of the Swedish Council for Social Research and chair of the European Science Foundation's (ESF) committee on social sciences; Prof Werner Rathmayer of the Universitat Konstanz and former chair of the ESF's life and environmental sciences committee; and Prof William R.J. Shea, of the Universite Louis Pasteur de Strasbourg and chair of the ESF's humanities committee.
Prof Norbert Kroo, secretary general of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest and member of the governing council of the ESF, served during the first funding round; and Prof Jan Borgman, former president of the University of Groningen and of the European Science and Technology Assembly served during the second funding round. The panel was chaired throughout by the chairman of the HEA, Dr Don Thornhill.