The State's first interactive science centre should be up and running near Heuston Station, Dublin by 2009 and a vibrant hands-on approach to science will plug vital gaps in the public's interest in the subject, writes Danny O'Hare

For both Government and all those concerned with Ireland's performance in science, a major obstacle to our future economic performance is the continuing lack of general public interest in things scientific. Since we recognise that our future depends critically on science and technology, we urgently need to stimulate interest in science so that more young people will choose to study it and make their careers in it.

While there is much to be done at school and university level, there is also a need to address this issue on a broader basis. At a national level, we need a mechanism that will highlight awareness of science, excite young people with its possibilities, and provide an opportunity for hands-on involvement with practical scientific projects. Such a mechanism is a national interactive science centre of the kind that exists in all other developed countries, and the lack of which in Ireland until now has served to emphasise the inferior status we publicly accord to science.

The good news is that we are on course to have a centre of this kind up and running here by 2009. By then, if all goes according to plan, Exploration Station will be in operation as part of the huge Heuston Gate development at Kilmainham in Dublin.

This will be a centre for informal hands-on learning where children's curiosity and imagination are stimulated and encouraged through scientific exploration. It will help children realise their full learning potential by encouraging them to explore at their own pace and in their own style and by appealing to their sense of fun and adventure. It will also become an educational resource for parents, caregivers and teachers by involving them in their children's learning experiences.

Though it will be a resource visited by school groups in the same way they now go to museums and art galleries, this centre will offer a different and (hopefully) a much more exciting experience. It will not merely be a question of "let's push the button, look and walk away". Instead it will be a real laboratory for learning about all science disciplines, maths and engineering, with workshop spaces to provide opportunities for hands-on experimentation and investigation. Interactivity is at the very heart of the concept, and each gallery in the centre will be staffed by people trained to engage the visitor in learning and understanding.

The centre will occupy an area of about 50,000 sq feet. Seven permanent galleries will occupy nearly half of this area, with flexible programme spaces built into each so there are always new experiences to discover with every visit. Other features will include:

A gallery for travelling exhibits that will change about every six months

A gallery for children under five and their parents/caregivers

An auditorium with stage to seat 250

A Cyber Cafe containing the latest in computer technology.

Four workshop/studio /laboratory spaces

A cafe and a gift shop

Though located in Dublin, the centre is intended emphatically as a national resource that will benefit all the people of Ireland. We will regularly bring travelling exhibits to other areas, we will use the internet to interact with teachers and young people and to be an active and lively communications hub.

We are now at about the half-way stage at bringing this ambitious project to reality, in a partnership that unites the Government and the private sector. It was adopted as a key project in the Research, Development and Innovation part of the current Programme for Government, clearly reflecting the view of both the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the then Tánaiste, Mary Harney, that it is an essential need in our pursuit of leadership in the knowledge society.

So far, some €600,000 has been spent on the preliminary stages, a sum that was raised from the Irish Youth Foundation, the Forfás Discover Science and Engineering body, and from individual contributions by members of the Board of Exploration Station. We engaged a world-class exhibit design company - Gyroscope from Oakland in California - which has come up with an exciting conceptual framework following visits to Ireland and wide consultation with the many interests. This framework will be the driver for exhibit design and fabrication, which is now about to begin. A distinguished director of the centre, Jane Jerry, is already in place.

We are consulting fully with the science and technology, education and business communities on exhibits and themes. We are engaging with teachers from all levels of education and in a wide range of disciplines, especially on the important task of integrating the work of the centre with the school curriculum. To formalise this consultation, we are setting up a National Advisory Council and are currently seeking members.

Who will pay for all this? Funding will come from a mixture of private fundraising, Government contributions and commercial activity, including admission charges.

In the first place, the Office of Public Works has undertaken to provide €15 million (2003 values) for the centre building from the proceeds of selling the Heuston Gate site (which is expected to go to tender next year). A further €15 million will be needed for fitting-out the building and developing the exhibits. It is hoped that the Government will contribute substantially to the development of the exhibits, with the balance raised from the private sector here in Ireland and also in the United States. As part of the Government contribution, the Office of Public Works will design the building itself.

Once completed, the centre will cost about €3.5 million a year to run, at 2006 prices. The norm across Europe is for public authorities to pay about 40 per cent of the running costs, and we would expect a similar pattern to be followed here. The board of Exploration Station will raise the balance through reasonably priced admission charges, commercial activities - restaurant, shop and special events - as well as through fundraising.

So while a project on this scale does not come cheap, it is clearly an investment that will produce a substantial and early payback in terms of our national objectives.

Danny O'Hare, who is presently chairman of Exploration Station, is a former president of Dublin City University