I have just returned from an interetsing 2 days in Dublin where I helped Science Foundation Ireland allocate grant money. The panel consisted of non-Irish scientists/engineers (all academics) who reviewed and assessed the proposals. As Ireland is a small country (4.2 million in the Republic) disinterested internal peer review is difficult, hence the composition of the panel. The quality was good and, as there were no axes to grind, the panel meeting was very pleasant.

Assessing small country science is an interesting exercise. Ireland likes to state how it is currently the richest country in the European Union (possibly second to Luxemburg) but its population size is about that of a larger European City (Greater Manchester is about 3 million, Hamburg Metropolis about 4.5 million). So how does the science of Ireland compare to that of a European city? From the evidence of my panel, not badly. Like many other Western economies, the Science base has been expanded by immigration. There is a large emphasis on simulation/modelling and, as is common in most other communities, poor rapport between modellers and experimentalists.

It is clear that scientists in Ireland believe that their research should be supporting local industry as there were many references to biotechnology and microelectronic clusters. However, Irish high tech. industry is mostly imported multinationals and the question is whether they are there for the long term.