Government funding has been reduced from €19m to €10.5m, the head of a key science organisation tells Dick Ahlstrom
Irish researchers are in limbo, according to the chairman of the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology. Budget cuts imposed by the Department of Finance have left researchers wondering if the bad old days of start-stop support for science have returned.
Prof Tom Mitchell has plenty of experience of the vagaries of State support for scientific research: 10 years of it as provost of Trinity College in Dublin. Before National Development Plan funding came on stream, State backing for research was risible, he says.
"It was a very encouraging time for all of us when the Government decided to invest in the new knowledge-based, high-skills economy," says Prof Mitchell. "Now we have considerable worries about it."
His concerns follow the jolt to the council's finances during last year's tussle over the final spending estimates for the council's host, the Department of Education and Science. The National Development Plan originally allowed for a council budget of €95m through 2006, but now only two-thirds of this might come through.
The council should have had €19 million this year to fund graduates, postdoctoral students and its key basic research-grant programme. Instead it got €10.5 million. If the shortfalls continue the council will have €13.5 million for 2004 instead of €20 million.
Some would argue that €60 million plus still represents a substantial spend, particularly as the figures were much smaller before the National Development Plan. Yet that would miss the point of making the initial heavy investment in Irish scientific brainpower, says Prof Mitchell.
The council's core activity is "helping to develop the human resource or the intellectual capital" needed to create a knowledge-based economy, he says. "When you start to build the research capability of the country you have to start with education."
The council does this through three main programmes. Its Embark Scholars initiative funds graduates, enabling them to work towards PhDs at home. "It is aimed at the people who before this were drifting off to North America and the UK," says Mitchell.
The council funds postdoctoral fellowships, again keeping Irish researchers engaged at home during one of their most creative periods as career scientists. These awards, usually of two year's duration, are worth at least €38,000 a year.
The basic research-grants scheme is run in co-operation with Enterprise Ireland, although its involvement will move to Science Foundation Ireland next year. Prof Mitchell views this as one of the most important programmes.
It funds projects proposed by working scientists and helps to build "a vibrant research environment" at third level. "If research departments don't have them we are lost."
Last year the council and Enterprise Ireland could afford 119 awards. This year they can fund only 89. "The big question now is will the funding be sustained to keep things going or, indeed, to expand," he says. "The question is whether this is to be a permanent policy developed for the State or whether they are going to retreat from it."
Taking money out of the system now is dangerous, he says. "You run the risk of losing the value of the investment already made. If the momentum is slowed or the initiative is stalled before it begins to bear fruit, then you have nothing to show for it."
The Department of Education and Science strongly supports the council's work, he says, but is being given little room to manoeuvre. "They don't have a lot of discretion in this, no matter what their commitment to research."
The decisions are for the Government, however, not just for one Department. "This is national policy because it is of national importance."
It also has to be a long-term decision to stick with the programme. "Once you are going down this road you cannot turn back," he says. "It has to be seen as a long-term commitment to give the stability and continuity that will establish us in research and allow us to keep and attract the best brains."