The Government is set to announce a new chief science adviser. Trinity College geneticist Prof Patrick Cunningham is expected to be approved at a Cabinet meeting next Tuesday.
It is understood that a new director general for the research funding body Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has also been selected and awaiting approval, with confirmation expected early next year.
When announced, these appointments will begin to ease concerns among the research community here about "instability" caused by the long delay in filling these posts. The post of Chief Science Adviser to the Government became vacant in November 2005 after it emerged that the then adviser, Dr Barry McSweeney, received his doctorate from an unapproved institution, Pacific Western University.
The position as head of SFI became vacant at the end of June this year with the departure of Dr William Harris after five years to take up a position in Arizona. The role is extremely important given SFI is responsible for research spending worth more than €600 million in the current National Development Plan plus additional resources in the next plan.
A key Civil Service position in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment associated with State science policy is also set to become vacant.
Ned Costello is assistant secretary general and heads the division responsible for developing, promoting and co-ordinating science, technology, innovation and intellectual property policy at the department.
He leaves next year to head the Irish Universities Association.
As head of the department's Office of Science and Technology (OST) he was central to the development and implementation of the Government's new €3.8 billion Science Strategy for Technology and Innovation, which will be funded under the next National Development Plan.
"These positions need to be filled for the strategy to roll out," said one researcher linked to policy development. "The recent instability has caused a lot of concern."
Prof Cunningham is professor of animal genetics at Trinity and has held a selection of positions on international bodies.
He was former deputy director of An Foras Talúntais and is co-founder and chairman of the biotechnology company IdentiGEN, which enables meat products in the shops to be traced back to source using genetic fingerprinting.
Sources indicate that the Heidelberg-based Irish head of the European Molecular Biology Organisation, Prof Frank Gannon, is the most likely candidate to replace Dr Harris as head of SFI.
A former professor of microbiology and director of the national diagnostics centre at NUI Galway, he has been a senior scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Germany since 1994.
His long experience abroad was considered a factor in his expected selection, according to sources. A formal announcement on this position is not expected until early next year.
