IRELAND COULD become a European leader in radiowave and wireless research, according to the head of the Commission for Communications Regulation. It could also serve as a major test centre for new mobile and television services.
ComReg commissioner Mike Byrne was speaking yesterday in Kilkenny at SFI Science Summit 2008. Organised by State research funding body Science Foundation Ireland, the annual meeting brought about 400 research scientists together over the last two days as a way to foster wider collaboration.
Tapping into the comparatively underused "radio spectrum" here could become an important contributor not just to research but also to the wider economy. Control of our radio spectrum was already worth €3 billion annually, employed about 31,000 and represented 1.7 per cent of gross domestic product, Mr Byrne said.
"We have the unique opportunity in Ireland to be one of the top European nations for testing applications that use the radio spectrum. A lot of it has to do with our geographical location."
We have only one land border with another jurisdiction and, as an island, radio spectrum tests can proceed without interfering with other radio-based applications, he suggested.
ComReg developed a strategy to encourage the use of spare broadcasting space to conduct research and to test new products and services, Mr Byrne said.
This included improved mobile services, wireless high-volume data transfer and better television services. "What we are promoting is trials of services, technologies or applications that use the radio spectrum. We have decided that where spectrum is available we will make it available for trials," he said. It was part of the "digital dividend" that would come through research in the digital era and "is important for our economy as well".
The meeting also heard about smart medical implants, future replacement joints and other devices that could respond to the person's genetic make-up.
"It is a biophysical response," said Prof Patrick Prendergast, professor of bioengineering at Trinity College Dublin. "In the future, we could imagine devices that could configure themselves for the patient and pick up information from their DNA." We already had stents that could deliver measured doses of drugs, but the next generation implant could have adult stem cells attached to its surface, he said.
Such a type of hip joint, should it begin to loosen, would respond to the resultant "micro movements", encouraging stem cells on the surface to change into cells that would help the implant to attach itself more closely to the bone. "That is futuristic but that is where the next generation of these implants will come from," Prof Prendergast said. "They will be able to respond to that patient's own system."