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Ireland is hoping to start a US brain drain that leads straight to the Emerald Isle. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a government agency, is planning a publicity campaign in the United States aimed at attracting early-career Irish expats as well as top American scientists.
"Ireland should be their place of choice for research, given the investment and excitement now underway," an SFI spokesman told The Scientist. William Harris, the director general of the agency, is an American who served at the National Science Foundation for almost 20 years and was the founding president of Columbia's Biosphere 2 Center.
SFI's mandate is to spend €646 million (USD $770 million) between 2000 and 2006 on academic researchers and research teams in biotechnology and information and communications technology. Last year, they lured prominent genetics researcher John F. Atkins back to Ireland using €3.2 million over 5 years to support him and his research team.
The cost of the campaign has yet to be determined, as SFI has now put the project out to bid to ad agencies. SFI has said it will run for a year and target major TV news outlets, as well as newspapers such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The Irish campaign is just the latest to target the American market. Other countries, such as Canada and Singapore, have been recruiting for some time.
So far, said the SFI spokesman, "of the 153 research programs funded to date, approximately 30 are headed by engineers and scientists who have moved to Ireland to carry out their research from countries [including] Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, England, Germany, Japan, Russia, Scotland, and Slovakia," as well as the United States.
Alan Leshner, the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said he had not come across such a media campaign before. "But the government of Ireland has realized that building a strong science infrastructure is one of the best investments they can make in the economy of the future, [and] they are aggressively pursuing it," he said.
"I think it reflects a very wise analysis of what brought America to where it is," Leshner told The Scientist. "I think it is another example of what should be totally obvious to everyone in the United States, but obviously isn't, and that is having a preeminent and very strong scientific enterprise is the determinant of economic status, of security status, quality-of-life status, health status."
It is "a reminder that we can't adopt a laissez-faire attitude about where we are. Because other people are out there learning from our historical example, and they feel perfectly happy to occupy any openings that we leave," Leshner said.
References
| 1. | | [http://www.sfi.ie/home/index.asp]
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| | | Science Foundation Ireland
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| 2. | | [http://www.sfi.ie/content/content.asp?section_id=177&language_id=1#wh]
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| | | William C. Harris
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| 3. | | [http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20031119/04/]
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| | | A. Haverty, "Irish science funds flow again," The Scientist, November 19, 2003.
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| 4. | | [http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20031208/03/]
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| | | A. Haverty, "Ireland gets Atkins back," The Scientist, December 8, 2003.
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| 5. | | [http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20040517/02/]
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| | | D. Payne, "Canada reversing brain drain?" The Scientist, May 17, 2004.
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| 6. | | [http://www.aaas.org/ScienceTalk/leshner.shtml]
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| | | Alan I. Leshner
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