Frank Gannon, the new head of Science Foundation Ireland, has the experience and the enthusiasm to help steer the country towards its "smart economy" ambitions, writes DICK AHLSTROM

WHEN FRANK GANNON was considering whether to go forward for the post as director general of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), one factor concentrated the mind. Could he turn his back on the laboratory?

It was no small consideration. Frank Gannon is a scientist to his fingertips. He is a scientist’s scientist: creative, enthusiastic and a motivator of scientific talent in the lab.

Gannon knew the time was right in 2007 for him and his family to make the jump back to Ireland from his German base in Heidelberg, where he was senior scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). But could he walk out of the lab and into an administrative post back at home?

Heidelberg’s loss has proven to be Ireland’s gain, for he made the move, taking over from the highly successful first director general of SFI, Bill Harris, in July 2007. Since then he has restructured the organisation, used his considerable international contacts to network abroad, and engaged with the local political and public-service scene here to protect SFI from the ongoing economic turmoil.

When he arrived, it was the best of times and the worst of times. SFI was already well on its way to building up Irish scientific capabilities. The Government was committed to the development of a knowledge economy and the money was flowing via the National Development Plan, SFI itself and the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions, which were all supporting scientific excellence in Irish laboratories.

Then the economy hit its high-water mark and it has been downhill ever since. The economy has tanked, unemployment is rising, and the filleting knife is out for virtually every State programme.

Yet the science budget has so far remained intact. Careful lobbying by Gannon and others has helped keep the Government onside, and allowed them to “hold their nerve” through these difficult times. The highest levels of Government remain committed to the “smart economy”, believing that our engagement with scientific research will help pull us out of recession when the tide finally turns.

Gannon is well equipped to weather this storm, as he has an exceptional mix of experience. The Sligoman was an undergraduate at the then University College Galway, where he completed an honours degree in biochemistry and went on to finish a PhD at the University of Leicester.

He gained more international experience as a postdoc at the University of Wisconsin and later at Inserm in Strasbourg, before returning to Galway and the Department of Microbiology, where he helped build its scientific grounding in the emerging field of biotechnology.

He became the director of the National Diagnostics Centre, one of a number of biotech centres established under the BioResearch Ireland umbrella at the time, a role that required scientific expertise but also commercial nous, given the imperative to attract contract research from the private sector.

The opportunity of a foreign posting arose again in 1994, however, and Gannon was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. He moved to Heidelberg to work with EMBL, becoming its senior scientist, but while there he also served as executive director of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (Embo) and associate editor of the Embo Journal.

All the while he led a research team of about 50 and remained fully engaged with lab activities until taking up his post at SFI. And even as he assumed his new “desk jockey” role, he was still impacting the scientific journals. In March 2008, the prestigious journal Nature published important scientific findings related to research he led while at EMBL.

Now he leads SFI where he can apply all of the various talents picked up throughout his career. This includes leading a large group of skilled individuals, having experience of the private sector and company start-ups, knowing the needs of working scientists and the challenges they face as they conduct world-class research, and having expertise in engaging with the political dimension of his work.

Colleagues describe him as “very focused, very intelligent, very directed”, adding: “He has a natural passion for what he is doing here.” Some view his years abroad as being particularly relevant for the success of SFI. “He knows the university system here and he knows the international system inside out.”

He is fortunate in that the 50 or so staff involved in SFI are highly committed to the work they are doing, but Gannon must keep them motivated and this seems second-nature to him.

He is described as being a leader of the organisation, not a boss, a person who prefers to allow a collegial atmosphere akin to that seen in a closely knit, highly functional laboratory environment, where everyone knows what is expected of them and everyone wants to make things happen. That seems to be important to the way SFI runs. “He is very well supported by the staff and they want to deliver for him,” says one SFI staffer.

It also seems to be run on a “doors open, access all areas” basis where he fosters a high level of communication between colleagues and the ready exchange of ideas and opinions, according to those who work with him. He looks for a high level of interaction and wants people to be comfortable and committed to what they are doing. It is simply not part of his style to be the benign dictator who throws his weight around in order to get things done.

Gannon has left the formal laboratory, but now works in a different kind of lab. It is free of Bunsen burners and test tubes, tissue samples and DNA sequencers, but it is a sort of lab nonetheless where ideas flow and different kinds of discoveries are made.

It is an experiment that simply has to work if Ireland is to win through to its “smart economy” ambitions. The good news? Gannon has the capacity to help us on our way.

SFI ORIGINS AND AIMS

Science Foundation Ireland was established in 2000 to provide financial support for scientific research. It was placed on a statutory footing in 2003 under the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Act 2003.

SFI funding comes via the National Development Plan and during the current Plan 2007-2013 it has a budget of €1.4 billion. It provides money for individuals leading research projects but also larger groups involving clusters of scientists.

Until this year, it targeted research in two main areas, biotechnology and information and communications technology. The Government has now added energy-related research to SFI's remit and it has an initial €95 million to support those conducting energy research.