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Chris Horn: Discarding premium brand Science Foundation Ireland may transpire to be wrongheaded

SFI has become a flagship funder of scientific research in our universities, with corresponding aid to industry for collaborative research via the IDA and Enterprise Ireland

Science Foundation Ireland has lifted the country's scientific reputation and brand. Photograph: Getty Images

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Chris Horn
Thu Mar 7 2024 - 05:45

As a young PhD student at Virginia Tech. in 2008, Georgette Yackman was told by her professor: “You’re one person. One person can’t change the world”.

She, however, proceeded to build her doctorate by proposing extending the multidisciplinary and integrated teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem), to also include arts (Steam).

Today, many educational professionals and strategists worldwide have adopted Yackman’s advocacy.

Research in the Stem areas is comparatively well funded by the Irish taxpayer, but the funding of research in the arts and humanities is less so

One of the first proponents in Ireland of the Steam perspective in 2008 was the Science Gallery, a project with which I was involved. Sadly now discarded by Ireland, the initiative has nevertheless gained momentum across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

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The Naughton family (of Glen Dimplex) were strong supporters of the Science Gallery, and have followed by generously encouraging the Cork-based company Steam Education, founded in 2014 to promote a Steam-based approach in primary schools, including a hands-on programme with co-teaching from experts in academia and industry.

Research in the Stem areas is comparatively well funded by the Irish taxpayer, but the funding of research in the arts and humanities is less so. Nevertheless, Ireland has some world-class arts research. I have personally been impressed by initiatives such as the advanced high-tech restorative work within the National Gallery, the intricate reconstruction of the Virtual Record Treasury and insightful investigations at the Chester Beatty.

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) was founded in 2000 by then tánaiste Mary Harney to aggressively evolve basic and applied research into twin foundations for the Irish economy. Faced with rapidly increasing international competition for foreign direct investment, the national strategy assessed that world-class scientific research undertaken in Ireland would create a big differentiator against low-tax economies and mobile international investment. Coupling academia with leading commercial research, thus building collaborative and multidisciplinary university and industry teams, became a key objective.

This was well-aligned with national enterprise policy, complementing SFI’s sibling agencies in the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.

Industry generally favours collaborative research since it reduces the risk of failure, and enhances the possibility of commercially interesting spin-offs from intermediate results as a project progresses. Research is generally a continual journey rather than just a singular outcome after an investment eternity.

We also scored first for business and employment impacts from innovation in the pan-European innovation scoreboard

In November 2000, The Irish Times observed that, in launching SFI and marrying academic with industrial research, “Minister Mary Harney and her Department of Enterprise and Employment have stolen a march on the Department of Education and Science”.

SFI consequently became the flagship funder of scientific research in Irish universities, with corresponding aid to industry for collaborative research via the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. SFI grew to have a similar level of financial support from the Oireachtas as for the IDA (in 2022, they received €229 million and €225 million respectively).

SFI has certainly lifted Ireland’s scientific reputation and brand. In 2020, Ireland scored 12th worldwide for general scientific paper citations, including a remarkable second place in immunology, and third place in both agricultural sciences, and pharmacology and toxicology.

We also scored first for business and employment impacts from innovation in the pan-European innovation scoreboard.

Now, in a remarkable reversion, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris proposes to extract SFI from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and back into his department, including merging it with the Irish Research Council.

The Irish Research Council is effectively a suboffice within the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, established by ministerial letter in 2012. It aids the career development of young researchers across all disciplines (including the arts and humanities), particularly those with a social and cultural significance.

The new organisation will be called Taighde Éireann. The shrewd 20-year nurturing of an international brand in SFI is to be discarded.

The Taighde chief executive will explicitly have two masters, the board of Taighde and the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee

No doubt in reflex to the 2003 act establishing SFI in which its 12-member board had one seat allocated to the Department of Education, Taighde’s 12-member board will have a single representative from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The Taighde chief executive will explicitly have two masters, the board of Taighde and the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, in my view resulting in an ambiguous structure that has led to governance issues in other State bodies. Private sector chief executives by contrast have a single authority, their board, and then with the chairman/woman and entire board being in turn responsible to shareholders.

Taighde’s focus will bring arts and humanities research on to a statutory footing for the first time. Nevertheless, the dissolution of SFI and Taighde’s move into Steam rather than just Stem is an audacious expedition by the Government, with deep potential consequences for the Irish economy and society.

There has hitherto been remarkably little public comment from industry and national policy groups, such as Ibec, the chambers of commerce and the Industry Research & Development Group, nor indeed from the Opposition. Independent evidence of success, or otherwise, will be whether Ireland’s research and innovation scores continue to climb in the international rankings.

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