State urged to accelerate research development

The Republic needs to go "full speed ahead in developing its research capabilities" if it wishes to make its mark in biotechnology and other emerging fields, according to a former US Secretary of Education.Mr Richard Riley, who served two terms as secretary of education during the Clinton presidency, said the Republic needed to think strategically and to think long term.

Mr Riley visited Dublin recently to attend the eighth National Innovation Conference, organised by Forfás, and afterwards spoke to The Irish Times.

He said that with an anticipated drop of one-third in the number of Irish school-leavers by 2007, the Republic faced a significant challenge in developing a large enough pool of skilled IT and other workers to expand the economy.

In his address to the conference, he said much more will have to be done to extend the learning opportunities of the current workforce and to give older workers a greater opportunity to develop their skills.

"Much more will also have to be done to lift up the 18 per cent of your primary and secondary students who are disadvantaged. Here the issue is not one of government policy but the larger challenge to Irish society to move beyond the established class boundaries that define expectations."

Mr Riley, who was governor of South Carolina before becoming US Secretary for Education, is now back with his South Carolina law firm. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, an organisation that works as an intermediary for the Bill Gates Foundation in the investment of funds in education and is the largest recipient of money from the philanthropic Gates Foundation. Mr Riley is an adviser to the Gates Foundation.

Mr Riley said the view of the United States is that if it is to remain competitive it will have to plough more money into education and increase access to education. Yet, he said, the budgets of state universities are being cut. "You cannot short-change higher education. If you do, it will tell in the future," he said.

He said he would encourage Ireland to continue thinking "strategically". "The investments you make for the long term, and particularly the investments you make in education, pay enormous dividends in long-term economic success."

He said business leaders should adopt an attitude of "enlightened self-interest" in challenging notions as to who was suited for third-level education and who wasn't. "You cannot leave this issue on the table for educators and government policy makers to address alone. The reality is simply this, that if you do not have enough Irish students in the academic pipeline, you may soon have to solicit skilled workers from all over the world, as does the United States."

He said that supporting excellence at secondary level was essential for success at third level and long term innovation. This was currently the focus of much of his work in the US. Another issue was the "paradox" whereby science illiteracy was a hallmark of modern society despite its increasing dependence on science.

He said this problem has led the US to educate more than 500,000 students from around the world in these subjects, who then often stay on in the US. The US also recruits science and technology graduates from around the world.

"We have been importing the best brains possible to keep America competitive. But the new demands of national security and the reality that many developing nations want to encourage their best talent to come home suggests that America's long- term import policy cannot be sustained."

Strategic thinking at the highest level fosters the development of university-industry collaborations, he said. There is a growing awareness of the "powerful role that clustering plays in developing university-industry collaborations".

The US is dotted with successful economic clusters that are linked to well-established university research centres. Silicon Valley has links with Stanford University. The North Carolina Research Triangle is linked to Duke University and the University of North Carolina.

Great universities are having a profound influence with young people who have talent and drive clustering in selected cities in the US. Seattle, Atlanta and Boston are some of the cities that benefit from this "brain gain".

These young people "are making choices that will determine which cities will thrive and which cities will struggle to survive economically". The emergence of "winner takes all" cities has been linked to the presence of a dominating research university.

"All of this suggests that if Ireland wants to make its mark in biotechnology and other emerging fields, it will have to go full speed ahead in developing its research capabilities and in developing partnerships with leading research universities around the world."

He encouraged Irish universities to "scale up" their efforts to develop partnerships with universities in Europe and the US.

"Ireland is a small nation and if you are to have an impact you must make the most of your advantage of being an established link between Europe and the US."