Technology and science awarded £932m last year

The State invested £932 million in science and technology during 1999, according to a Forfas report, with £154.5 million or 18.9 per cent going directly into research and development.

About 65 per cent or £608 million came directly from the Exchequer, with £168 million from the EU and the remaining £156 million from fees earned by State agencies for science and technology-related activities. Details of the funding are provided in the Forfas document, State Expenditure on Science and Technology, 1999, which was cleared by the Cabinet late last week.

The total involves any expenditure connected with science and technology by nine Government departments and 34 agencies. In some cases the science connection is tenuous, for example with the inclusion of the Central Statistics Office. With others it is more obvious, as with Met Eireann, the Geological Survey and the Natural History Museum.

The total also includes allocations made to third-level institutions and funding made available to encourage companies into research activity via the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

For this reason the research and development component of the spend saw an increase of 14 per cent over 1998, while overall the science and technology spend went up by only 5.2 per cent.

The research component will rise even more rapidly when science spending worth £1,060 million allocated under the National Development Plan begins. The Technology Foresight Foundation begins to function later this summer, and has £25 million available to it for this year, £560 million over the life of the National Development Plan. The Higher Education Authority will have £500 million available to support research.

The EU's Community Support Framework to public sector science and technology "continues to be a significant and important source of funding", according to Forfas. Its £168 million contribution was up by 18 per cent on the 1998 figure.