SFI awards are made after a process of international scientific peer review. This funding round was announced last year, and funding comes on stream immediately.
A Government research funding agency has announced awards worth €43.4 million for academic scientists. All of the 41 projects involve studies in either biotechnology or information and communications technology (ICT), and will last from two to four years each.
The representative body for scientists here, the Irish Research Scientists' Association (IRSA), welcomed the funding as a positive move, but repeated its concerns that the support was concentrated in too narrow an area.
Details of all the projects were released yesterday by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a body established under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 to stimulate research.
It has a seven-year budget worth €635, and so far has allocated more than half of this budget in support of academic research.
The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, yesterday described the awards as a "milestone" in the effort to build world-class research activity in biotechnology and ICT.
The 41 projects involve 45 leading scientists, who will now establish or add to existing research teams. Projects attract up to €1million and all will be either in the universities or institutes of technology.
Projects range from studies of the performance of electronic circuits and the health effects of very low-level radiation exposure, to the "data mining" of genetic information and the use of lasers to cut advanced microchips.
SFI support was designed "to recruit and retain first-rate scientists and engineers in the research fields underpinning biotechnology" and ICT, according to the foundation's director general, Dr William C Harris.
The chairman of IRSA, Dr Donal Leech, of NUI Galway, repeated the association's concern that the SFI's remit should be broadened to include a wider range of research areas.
"Any investment in scientific research is a welcome investment," he said, but expressed doubts about the approach. "It seems to be a disproportionate investment in two areas rather than across the board in all sciences and engineering technology."
He added: "Funding in these two areas does not guarantee you are hitting the right disciplines for future growth."
