The Government's plans for its Technology Foresight Fund are finally under way with the appointment of an implementation group, working under the aegis of FAS, to bring into being the Research Foundation which will disburse the £560 million fund. The fund is only part of the substantial and unprecedented £1.95 billion to be directed towards science during the seven-year life of the National Development Plan. It has the potential to bring this country into new industrial territory.
The foundation will support research into biotechnology and computing - two areas expected to be central to the emerging technologies of the future. The stated Government intention is to use the fund in support of its new industrial development strategy, to build a world-class reputation for advanced research. Irish industry is expected to become an originator and developer of new technology and, if the strategy works, the plan will carry us beyond our current role as providers of bulk labour for the multinationals.
While our undoubted success in attracting high tech computer, pharmaceutical and chemical companies has served us well and continues to keep our economy buoyant, the Government correctly sees that this policy cannot sustain the country indefinitely. These companies can depart as quickly as they arrive and if don't become an originator of innovation and discovery then our economic well-being will remain outside our control.
The approach being adopted by the Tanaiste and her colleagues is suitably pragmatic and is steering a clever path, apparently satisfying the sometimes incompatible demands set by industry on one side and academia on the other. CHIU, the body that represents university presidents, was generous in its praise for the new foundation as was the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC) and the Industry Research and Development Group (IRDG) which speaks for companies involved in scientific research. All of these groups see merit in the establishment of a foundation that will co-ordinate and direct our national research endeavours in computing and biotechnology.
The key to the process will be the Research Foundation, its structures and its membership. These have yet to be determined and it will be for the implementation group to advise the Government before the end of June. The new foundation must be - and be seen to be - independent and reputable, uninfluenced by politics or lobbying from institutions and weighing up the merits of a project and providing funding only on the basis of it being internationally recognised as quality research. The establishment of the foundation and the disbursement of funding is only the beginning however and great challenges remain.
The remarkable level of funding will put unfamiliar strains on the third-level education system's ability to provide talent to populate the labs. Will there be enough top quality graduates available to carry the research forward? For years third-level researchers have argued that if sufficient money were available then world class science would flow from their labs. The Government is now preparing to test this hypothesis and our continued economic well-being in years to come may well depend on how well-founded it proves to be.