Wales is Watching
icWales (which, according to their strap line is The national website of Wales) published an interesting article recently discussing science policy in Wales. In the article they mention SFI, and point to it as an exemplar of what can be done with targeted government backing of science funding in a small nation.
It also created Science Foundation Ireland (www.sfi.ie), which has a war-chest of £400m to establish a strong research capability in Ireland in the areas of biotechnology and ICT. As a result, this body is spending money scouring the world’s universities to attract the best scientists and their research teams to Ireland to build up these two critical areas.
Whereas Wales may wish to choose its own areas of scientific excellence, the real issue remains that of developing, like the Irish, a strong strategic approach to science and technology policy to improve investment in key areas of research and development in the private and public sector.
It’s interesting, and encouraging to hear that other countries are sitting up and taking notice of what SFI is doing to the science landscape in Ireland.