Research investment must continue and more young people must be encouraged to pursue careers in the sciences, the junior minister for research has said.
Success in this area was a “critical element” in Ireland’s economic recovery, Sean Sherlock emphasised on 12 July after a briefing about preparations for the EuroScience Open Forum 2012 in Dublin next July.
He said the government was giving strong backing to the largest science meeting of its kind in Europe.
“The government remains wholeheartedly committed to the Dublin City of Science 2012 project,” said Sherlock. Its success would boost Ireland’s reputation abroad as “a thriving centre of research excellence”.
The event is expected to bring about 5,000 scientists, business leaders and journalists to Dublin.
A large public engagement with science programme was also being developed to help attract thousands of visitors to ESOF events, the local organising committee told the minister.
Sherlock said that it provided an opportunity to showcase the best of Irish research and would encourage student interest in careers in the sciences, engineering and maths.
He expressed confidence that the public and private sectors could combine efforts to deliver “an exciting and fun event”.
The government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Cunningham, was central to winning the ESOF event for Dublin ahead of competing cities. He told Sherlock that confirmed keynote speakers included Craig Venter, head of the J Craig Venter Institute; Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency; Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director general of Cern, the European particle physics centre; and the former Irish president, Mary Robinson.
The call for science session proposals had generated a huge response, he said. More than 400 had been received by the call close at the end of June, double the number for previous ESOF events.
While the Forum takes place on 11-15 July, the Dublin City of Science programme consists of a year-long series of public engagement with science events. The public engagement call for proposals also closed at the end of June with more than 300 proposals received, said Dublin City of Science director, David Fahy.