The significance of Science Week is that there’s an onus on us all to raise awareness of Stem subjects and the importance of science in our lives. Ireland can have a reputation as a first-class country for research, development and innovation, but we need to nurture our talent in order to continue that drive.
We want young people especially to feel engaged by science as they come through the education system because they are a major part of what this country will have to offer when it comes to job creation.
About €800 million of the public purse is being invested right across the area of science in Ireland, from research centres to advocacy work. It’s not enough, in my opinion. We need to nearly double that amount if we can over the next seven or eight years and reach 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2020. That’s the target.
Beyond that, we need to be competing with other countries such as Israel, Denmark and Sweden. A lot of companies tell us they’re coming here because of the talent available in Ireland and because of the way our research ecosystem has developed over the last 10-12 years.
We’ve reached 16th in the world for research expertise. That’s a good place for Ireland to be as the research agenda is critical for a country that aims to be enterprise-driven.
I’ve realised from going to schools over the past year and a half just how early children can get involved in science, so we’ve decided to try some experiments at home to see what our little ones like.
Hopefully any parent who can’t get to Science Week events will consider taking part in these kind of activities at home. We’re attempting a tornado in a bottle and another experiment that changes the colour of flowers. It might get messy but it’ll be fun anyway; they’ve been looking forward to it all week.
Natural-born scientists
Children never stop asking questions and that makes them natural born scientists, in my view. We need to make sure we facilitate that by encouraging them to use their imagination, to think out loud and to find solutions. It just goes to show: if we find something they like, that might be the key to developing their interest in this area. And that’s exactly what Science Week is all about.
In conversation with Cian Traynor
