The State gains a centrestage position in the world of cutting-edge technology research - and the ability to pull in major research funding - with the formal announcement this morning of the creation of the £150 million (€190.46 million) Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab Europe in Dublin. Media Lab Europe will carry before it the massive reputation of its progenitor, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab - perhaps the best-known research lab in the world, primarily because it regularly throws up products that seem to have escaped from a sci-fi film - and the Media Lab's director, Prof Nicholas Negroponte. The well-known author, adviser to governments, and visionary will also serve as Media Lab Europe's acting director, and for at least the next five years, as chairman of its board of directors.

Media Lab Europe will bring to Ireland the ability to draw research funding from the world's premier companies, opportunities for collaborative teaching, learning and research for the State's universities and colleges, and the chance for young Irish technology companies to grow in what should become a world-class incubator environment.

In terms of attracting technology companies to the State, the project's approval on Tuesday morning ranks in importance with the re-gearing of the educational system decades ago and the introduction of the low corporate tax rate.

Prof Negroponte says that the institute's Media Lab looked at many countries as possible locations for an independent, European lab. "But clearly this country was the most serious and attractive," he says. Serious talks with the Government about positioning Media Lab Europe in Dublin began last February, after an initial prospecting period late in 1998.

How did it end up in Dublin? "We look at places, and places come to us. You usually want to be invited," he says. The invitation in this case came from a perhaps unexpected source, entrepreneur and chairman of Esat Mr Denis O'Brien, who approached Prof Negroponte after the Media Lab director gave a talk in Dublin in September of 1998. "I think it's appropriate to say this started with a conversation with Denis O'Brien," he says.

The Government will put about £28 million towards the creation of the lab - to be spent in buying and fitting out an appropriate premises in a location yet to be finalised. The rest will come from grants, research funds, and private support from industry. Prof Negroponte is quick to stress that the sum from Government should be dwarfed by the research funds the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab name can draw in. The Media Lab alone at the institute draws $35 million (€34.88 million) annually in external research funds. In contrast Trinity College pulls in £15 million (€19.05 million) for the entire university.

Media Lab Europe should also benefit Ireland's existing colleges, universities and new media programmes. Prof Negroponte says Media Lab Europe will award degrees jointly with other institutions - with the degree actually coming from the outside institution - and therefore needs to have close relationships across academia.

Working with other Irish and European institutions "is one of the things we have to do", Prof Negroponte stresses. "We have a real interest in collaboration." Part of Media Lab Europe's faculty will be drawn, on a part-time basis, from other institutions. The faculty will then draw individual students - about 200 postgraduates - into the joint degree programme.

A primary interest of Media Lab Europe - and a departure for the Massachusetts Media Lab - will be to look at models for establishing a business incubator approach within the lab. Prof Negroponte says this will enable Irish entrepreneurs to develop projects with a commercial angle.

Media Lab Europe will focus on projects "complementary to what we do at the Media Lab", he says. The first students can look forward to enrolling for a term beginning January 2001. In the meantime, Prof Negroponte will be back and forth helping establish the institution and working out its implementation - often, he says, from his main home - cyberspace. "Physical presence is not important," he says. "I live a 100 per cent electronic life."

Full interview with Prof Nicholas Negroponte in Business This Week, next week.