Ireland is well placed to benefit from the EU's single biggest research and development initiative, particularly in marine research, a senior European Commission official has said. And the R&D terms of the £11 billion Fifth Framework Programme are to be finalised by Christmas.
Speaking at the Year of the Ocean conference in Dublin Castle yesterday, Dr Chris Pattermann said the fund, which will run from 1999 to 2002, would allocate about £400 million for collaborative marine research.
This would concentrate on maintaining the marine ecosystem, with an emphasis also on fisheries, aquaculture, ocean modelling and forecasting, coastal zone management, marine technology, shipping and communications, he said. Dr Pattermann is environment and climate prog ramme director with the Science, Research and Development Directorate General.
Irish businesses and research institutes are already involved in more than 60 projects with other member-states under the Fourth Framework and received £8 million in EU grants. This was for development of deep sea instruments; use of satellite technology for "remote sensing" of oceans, aquaculture/fishery research and innovation in marine food processing.
The quality of that research indicated Ireland was set to benefit significantly from the Fifth Framework - "a complex form of integrated investigation" which sets key questions and works with experts from many disciplines and stakeholders to answer them, he said.
In the marine context it would "focus on climate change, biodiversity and earth observation". Ireland had an obvious advantage, given its proven ability and increasing expertise in marine and information technology.
