A CUT of €100 million in the research budget is being considered by the Government.

If implemented, the move would put hundreds of millions of euro in foreign direct investment in jeopardy.

Cutbacks at that level would also likely force the closure of at least three major university-based research centres, putting hundreds of research jobs at risk.

The McCarthy report recommended a €100 million cut in State support for scientific research, about 15 per cent of the 2009 allocation. This level of cutback remains under discussion, despite the fact that it could impact on the willingness of high-tech multinationals to invest in this country.

A Government report issued late last month on “delivering the smart economy” pointed out that more than 40 per cent of IDA investments in 2008 were in RD, worth about €420 million.

The Government has long argued that companies such as Boston Scientific, Intel, HP, IBM, CITI and others come here because of the high quality research base, mainly in the universities.

Sources who attended a gathering of research scientists at a Science Summit in Athlone earlier this week indicated, however, that three major research centres at the University of Limerick, Dublin City University and NUI Galway would be put at immediate risk.

All are Centres for Science, Engineering and Technology (Cset), set up by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) at a cost of more than €30 million.

The three, Remedi in Galway, BDI in Dublin and Lero in Limerick, are due for renewal, but cutbacks would make this impossible and force their closure, the sources said.

SFI has funded nine Csets so far and also 19 smaller Strategic Research Clusters. These groups always involve a number of universities and are intended to build collaboration between private sector and academic researchers.

These three Csets alone involve close to 300 student and academic researchers, putting a large proportion of these jobs at risk. Overall, SFI supports the employment of more than 56,000 people through its research investments.

More importantly, each Cset and Cluster has high-profile industrial partners who become involved to tap into the research system here. These include Analog Devices, Medtronic, Smith Nephew, Wyeth, Enfer and others.

Ireland’s international reputation could be severely damaged if these Csets were closed, sources at the Athlone meeting warned. It would imply instability in State support for research.

Coincidentally, both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste stressed the importance of research at separate events yesterday. Ireland had one of Europe’s “best concentrations” of high-tech multinationals and the plan was “to encourage them to invest further” in research, Brian Cowen said in an address at the UCD Smurfit Graduate School.

And nanotechnology research “will undoubtedly be a magnet, both to attract further foreign direct investment here as well as supporting indigenous companies”, Mary Coughlan said in Dublin at the launch of Nanoweek.

SFI director general Prof Frank Gannon expressed concerns about funding. “To get a return on the investment made to date, it is essential that we maintain the current policy direction, as it is delivering economic returns,” he said.

“The SFI researchers, working in conjunction with multinational and Irish companies, have created a new environment that is retaining and will add jobs in what we all recognise as the smart economy. To even pause on this will have irreversible negative effects.”