Research funding should be made election issue, says university scientist

THE failure by Government to provide adequate funding for scientific research should be made an election issue, according to a prominent Trinity College scientist who said that it represented "a huge waste of Irish talent".

The comments came yesterday during a day-long discussion of the Government's White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation, published last October.

Prof David McConnell who heads TCD's Genetics Department, expressed grave reservations about the White Paper. "This document is in serious danger of undermining scientific development here over the next five years . . . I feel entirely badly let down," he said.

The loss overseas of Ireland's brightest research students due to lack of funding was important enough to represent an election issue, he said.

Scientific activity in the universities "must be practised at the very highest level", said Dr Eoin O'Neill of Trinity College. He acknowledged that many researchers failed to explain the significance of their work, which made it more difficult when seeking funding increases from policy-makers.

Mr John Hayden of the Higher Education Authority warned that Irish university research would be left behind without sufficient funding. He also argued that research activities needed to be "elevated into the management structure of the universities" with each institution then developing its own research strategy.

Earlier, Mr Eugene Forde, an assistant principal officer in the Office of Science and Technology, outlined the importance of the White Paper, saying that it would provide a permanent home for science and technology and a structure in which it could develop. It presented a challenge to researchers to demonstrate the contribution that science could make to industrial development.

Mr Con Power, formerly of the Confederation of Irish Industry and now a business consultant, stressed the importance of strengthening focus and structure in the development of government science policy.