Autumn Conferrings.

Governing Authority Report -  17 June 2003.

Othernews I
Othernews II
Othernews III

Around the Campus

E-mail:
ucd.news@ucd.ie

Research Funding Concerns

The interruption of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) will 'send the wrong signal' to the international community and presents immense practical problems for institutions where projects are already under way, the President, Dr Cosgrove, told graduates at the Autumn Conferrings. 

Describing the PRTLI 
as the 'most significant research programme in the history of the State', he added that there is also a real danger that it will undermine the other research initiative from the Science Foundation Ireland aimed specifically at the areas of ICT and Biotechnology. 

He said that the two programmes are interdependent and there is 'a clear lack of coherence' in a Government policy which continues support for one but not for the other. "One of the PRTLI's aims was to give substance to the claim that Ireland could develop internationally recognised centres of excellence in research and thus attract investment and scholarship from abroad," Dr Cosgrove noted. "Researchers who are considering relocation to this country, will not readily make a distinction and will undoubtedly wonder if the sudden curb in research funding in one area will be replicated in the other. 

"We all recognise the need for restraint in the present budgetary situation, but we need to think of creative methods to avoid a short term financial crisis having a long term deleterious effect on both the third-level education system and the economy."  

Miracles Great and Small at UCD's Veterinary Hospital.
more>>