Rabbitte to ask EU for additional £50m for research.

THE Government is to seek the transfer of additional EU funding worth £50 million to support industrial research and development.

Structural funds worth £100 million have already been provided to industry since 1994 under the Measure 1 programme. This scheme asks companies to match money provided by the fund in support of research activities.

The Minister of State for Commerce, Science and Technology, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said yesterday he would be seeking a further £50 million for the Measure 1 programme for 1998 and 1999.

Sources have suggested this would most likely come from existing structural fund allocations agreed under the Operational Programme for Industrial Development `94-'99, possibly from allocations not yet drawn down. Wholly new funding is unlikely.

Mr Rabbitte was speaking after the inaugural meeting of the newly appointed Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council. The council, which was established to advise the Government on the strategic direction of science policy, is chaired by Dr Edward Walsh, president of Limerick University.

In an apparent reference to industrial groups annoyed that there are too few business representatives on the 25-member council, Mr Rabbitte said that "any attempt to do a simplistic head count of the council would not be appropriate".

The Industry Research and Development Group, affiliated to the employers' lobby group IBEC, said yesterday that, while it had "reservations" about the council's composition, it wanted it to work.