New research programme aims to retain graduates

The Minister for Education and Science has announced a research programme aimed at slowing the State's brain drain. The Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology has £75 million to support Irish graduates and keep them working here.

"It is really a question of giving opportunities to young people to follow through their ideas at home," Dr Woods said yesterday at the announcement of the new council. "The funding is aimed at promoting excellence and the highest standards of research."

The new council will oversee disbursement of the fund over the next four academic years. The outgoing Provost of Trinity College, Dr Tom Mitchell, will chair it. The fund had the potential to have "the most transforming effect" of any of the various programmes here that support basic research, Dr Mitchell said. The money would go mainly to postgraduate and postdoctoral students. Students would be invited to bid for funding under the council's programme, he said. It was not realistic to suggest that a full funding round would be available for the next academic year, given that most students would have made choices for the coming year last January or February. Some limited funding might be made available this year as appropriate, he added.

The programme would also enable Ireland to retain the best students against competition from countries such as the US and Britain.

These countries were offering graduates £15,000 to £20,000 a year and the council would now be able to match this figure and compete for the best students, both here and abroad, Dr Mitchell said.

The council would also support others here involved in basic research. For this reason he expected that the existing support programme for basic research run for many years by Enterprise Ireland would merge with the council's activities. The council would support research under all three categories of science, engineering and technology, the Minister said. It could also complement the existing Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, established about two years ago with a £4 million fund to support humanities research.

In addition to Dr Mitchell, the other council members are:

Dr Ann Burnell, NUI Maynooth; Mr Liam Connellan, Institution of Engineers of Ireland; Dr Gabriel Crean, NUI Cork; Dr Ruth Curtis, NUI Galway; Prof Dervilla Donnelly, University College Dublin and Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies; Dr William Donnelly, Waterford Institute of Technology; Dr Brendan Goldsmith, Dublin Institute of Technology; Prof Jane Grimson, Trinity College; Ms Jackie Harrison, IBEC;

Prof Frank Hegarty, University College Dublin; Dr John Kelly, former registrar, University College Dublin; Prof Mary Leader, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; Dr Martin Lyes, Enterprise Ireland; Prof Anita Maguire, NUI Cork;

Mr Peter O'Neill, executive director IBM Ireland; Dr Tom O'Flaherty, Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland; Dr Munoo Prasad, Bord na Mona; Prof Jim Roche, Teagasc; Prof Julian Ross, University of Limerick; Dr Heather Ruskin, Dublin City University; Ms Yvonne Shields, Marine Institute; and Prof David Spearman, Royal Irish Academy.