Sir, - Your education correspondent reports (The Irish Times, April 26th) that the education authorities on both sides of the Border are to examine the idea of researchers from colleges North and South working on joint projects. He quotes the Northern Ireland Minister of Higher and Further Education, Dr Sean Farren, as saying that are no technical barriers to such joint research, but a structure to make it happen may be needed.
I would like to point out that the Armagh-based Centre for Cross Border Studies - a joint initiative by Queen's University Belfast, Dublin City University and the Workers Educational Association (N. Ireland) - has been doing just this kind of cross-border research since its foundation 19 months ago. Dr Farren paid tribute to the centre's pioneering work when he launched its latest report, on adult educational disadvantage and cross-border co-operation, in Belfast last week.
The centre has also commissioned research projects on cross-border telecommunications and health services (both these reports have been published); the EU's cross-border INTERREG programme (to be published on May 9th); local government links; waste management policies; mental health promotion and local history societies.
These projects involved 29 researchers from 11 universities and research centres in Belfast, Jordanstown, Coleraine, Armagh, Dublin, Maynooth, Galway, Dundalk and London, most of them in cross-border teams. - Yours, etc.,
Chris Gibson, Chairman, Centre for Cross Border Studies, Abbey Street, Armagh.