The Government of Ireland has announced the Members of the Board of the newly-formed agency Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland. The names are:
- Dr Eoin O’Sullivan
- Anne Vaughan
- Professor Niamh Moloney
- Professor Valeria Nicolosi
- Dr. Godfrey Gaston
- Professor Rebecca Braun
- Patricia Quane
- Lorraine Allen
- Leonard Hobbs
You can find biographies, together with one of the Chair, Michael Horgan, here. Looking through the list I see just one practising scientist, Valeria Nicolosi, who is an industrial chemist specialising in nanoscience. Among the other biographies you will find expertise in technology, entrepreneurship, and generic businessy things. but very little to do with actual research. And there’s nobody at all on the Board to champion fundamental science or any other curiosity-driven research. It appears that the misguided short-termism of Science Foundation Ireland is to be continued into the new organization.
Like many scientists working in Ireland, I was optimistic that the merger of the IRC with SFI would provide an opportunity to rebalance Ireland’s research ecosystem to have less emphasis on applied research. I hope I’m proved wrong, but it looks like that opportunity is to be squandered.
