The State's universities will need to sharpen their competitive instincts and strengthen their research skills if they want to get a slice of the £560 million in research funds to be allocated by the foundation.
Under the Government's plans they will now have to submit themselves to a rigorous examination by their international peers.
The mechanism for this will be a "competitive peer review process" under which a university's project will be subjected to close scrutiny by a panel of international academics. More importantly, the review process will continue after the research has been commissioned to see that progress is being made.
If the universities fail to deliver challenging results, the foundation has the power to set up its own institutes.
"It's basically saying to the universities - put up or shut up," said one source yesterday.
But first the challenge will be put to the universities, who yesterday expressed considerable confidence in their ability to thrive in the Foresight age.
"We have been competing for research funds at EU level for years and have regularly obtained more of the money than British and other European universities," said Mr Michael McGrath, spokesman for the Combined Heads of Irish Universities.
He said the universities had established a "first class record" in competing for funds and they "endorsed" the Government's emphasis on competition. He added that the universities would have no problem collaborating to get the funds.
While he has previously expressed disappointment at the funding the Government is planning to allocate to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, Professor Gerry Wrixon, president of University College Cork, said the foundation was "a cause for celebration and sheer joy for the science and technology research community."
This use of some of the £560 million to fund MIT's Media Lab was regarded as the one sour note in the Foresight initiative, according to university sources.
Another advantage of the initiative, said the university representatives, is that Foresight would focus everyone's energies on two areas - computing and biotechnology.
While the £560 million is an impressive figure, the universities denied it was a case of "feel the quantity, forget the quality". Dr Don Thornhill, the chairman of the Higher Education Authority, said that because the competition for funds would be based on "world class criteria", research of true quality would emerge from the process.