received additional funding of €11 million, -in what
was an otherwise draconian Budget 2011.
Commenting on Budget 2011’s allocation for
science, John Travers, SFI’s Director General said
“During this intense period of economic difficulty,
this clearly highlights Ireland’s commitment to
investing in high-quality scientific and engineering
research to support long-term, sustainable economic
development. The SFI research community
continues to enhance Ireland’s international
reputation in science and engineering, enabling
increasing levels of high tech foreign direct
investment and indigenous innovation. The budget
allocations will allow third-level institutions
to foster emerging talent and continue to build
partnerships with industry so that innovative
research can continue to flourish for years to come.”
In light of the aforementioned mission statement
of SFI, a conscious effort is made to ensure that
funded projects have a certain degree of commercial
viability, and because of this, there is a lot of
participation from multinational companies in
the projects that are on-going. SFI is, however,
cognizant of the fact that the nature of prog