Funding basic scientific research

Sir, – It is great that Ireland is finally committed to joining CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (“Ireland set to apply to become a member of leading European research centre CERN”, News, November 14th). It is long overdue. However, I am disappointed to see that the subheading chosen by your editors describes the function of CERN as “developing technology of tomorrow”. Again in the second paragraph, you write “its primary focus is on particle physics but it also plays a vital role in developing future technologies”, almost apologising for the fact that the Irish Government is actually committing money to basic research for a change.

Unfortunately this is typical of the short-sighted attitudes among Irish politicians to research that addresses fundamental questions, without necessarily having an immediate commercial application. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has publicly declared that it would be “ineligible and outside our legal remit” for it to fund research proposals in areas such as “pure mathematics and theoretical physics” (Science Foundation Ireland, Research in Ireland: The Benefit of Feedback). This is an astonishing policy statement from the major publicly funded organisation in Ireland devoted to funding scientific research, and it has rigorously enforced this moratorium over the last decade.

Both pure mathematics and theoretical physics have a rich history of contributing to culture and society over centuries and are substantially funded by almost all other EU member states. Dismissing them, and similar areas of pure basic research, as ineligible for funding is a disheartening perspective. This policy not only makes it challenging for Irish universities to attract and retain top-notch researchers in these fields but also tarnishes the reputation and quality of our third-level programmes that depend on these critical areas of study.

So while it is a very positive step to see that Ireland will finally contribute to CERN, it would be more beneficial in my view if the Government would reverse the SFI policy that prohibits funding of pure basic research. It is not as much of a headline-grabber as the CERN initiative but it would have much bigger long-term impact on the quality of our third-level institutions. – Yours, etc,