A quick post on two articles relating to science, research and knowledge economy Ireland.
Sunday Business Post printed an excellent article by Professor Colm Kearney of TCD School of Business on the policies for developing a real knowledge economy. The link is here. As those of you who follow my writings would know, I have campaigned for a long time now for proper recognition of the non-hard science fields of social sciences, business research and humanities as contributors to the 'knowledge economy'. See links here, here, here, here, here, and probably most succinctly - here.
Professor Kearney's article is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in the economic future of this country.
Note: Professor Kearney, unbeknown to many in Ireland, advised Australian Government during the period when Australia established one of the most progressive economic and fiscal environments which has resulted in its economy being able to weather the latest global crisis remarkably well.
One just hopes Professor Kearney gets drafted into a policy-making framework in this country, with some real power to change things.
The second story, related to the subject was also published by Sunday Business Post (here). It relates to the issue of collapsing funding for research in Irish leading academic institution - TCD. In the article in early 2009 published by the Sunday Business Post (here) I warned that it is only a matter of time when thousands of Irish post-docs - funded by the EU, Irish Government and minor private sector grants - are going to face a chop. Jobless PhD - as labeled them - are the direct cost of our short-sighted policies for pursuing lab-coats based innovation and knowledge economics.
Those numbers on TCD research funding are staggering. I had no idea that the cuts would be so harsh. Cutting so massively in to the budget of the countries premier research University is particularly stupid, so much for the knowledge economy. And I agree, I think TCD can kiss its THES rankings goodbye.
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