The Government has agreed to back a bid to make Dublin the "European City of Science" in 2012. A successful bid would bring a major international festival of science to the city during that June, attracting at least 4,000 people.
The Taoiseach announced the bid yesterday. It comes following a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, at which it was agreed that Ireland should launch a campaign to win the 2012 event.
"It is a little bit like biding for the Olympics," the Government's chief scientific adviser, Prof Patrick Cunningham, said. "There will be strong competition to claim the event."
Winning in 2012 would be particularly timely, the Taoiseach said, given that Ireland would be nearing the completion of the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, an €8.2 billion programme of research investment funded under the National Development Plan 2007-2013.
It would provide a "platform to showcase the best of Irish science and research across all disciplines", Mr Ahern said. It would promote Ireland as a leading centre for research and the festival element would benefit the economy.
The European City of Science is a relatively new EU supported programme that chooses a city every other year. Stockholm was the first city in 2004, followed by Munich in 2006 and Barcelona next year.
The city organises a year-long programme of science events, with the key being the international festival of science in June.
"The centrepiece is the big science meeting in June," Prof Cunningham said. The timing couldn't be better given that Ireland would be at the end of a decade of significant investment in scientific research.
"It will be the largest scientific event in Europe", so Irish researchers could not ask for a better opportunity to build our reputation in the area of science, he added.
"The prospects are good. It is the right time and we will have a lot to celebrate."
Prof Cunningham raised the possibility of a bid with the Cabinet committee and it quickly reached agreement to make a bid, he said.
Turin beat competition from Paris, Copenhagen and Wroclaw for 2010 and the competition will open early next year for 2012. The Dublin bid will go in next September, Prof Cunningham said.
The 2012 event would come after a time of "unprecedented investment by the State and, if successful, will mark the culmination of the Government Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation", Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said yesterday.
It would also be a time "when we will be looking at how we can build on the progress that will have been made under the science strategy".
"The bid for Dublin to become European City of Science in 2012 comes at a time of unprecedented investment by the State and, if successful, will mark the culmination of the Government Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation,"said Mr Martin.