“Everything is benefiting. Institutions are benefiting. Morale is benefiting. And we are confident that the economy will benefit,” says Ireland’s Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce Noel Treacy, referring to Science Foundation Ireland, a new funding agency that by 2006 will dish out 635 million euros (about $560 million) for information and communications technology and biotechnology. The SFI money is the largest single chunk from a €2.5 billion program, Ireland’s biggest-ever investment in research and education.
Attracting world-class scientists to Ireland and building up niche areas of science to be internationally competitive are key goals of SFI. The overarching aim, however, is to transform the economic success that made SFI possible—the Celtic tiger has been growing at nearly 10% a year—into long-term economic robustness. “We have a fantastically strong and happy group of blue-chip multinationals,” says Edward Walsh, chairman of the Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation and a...
