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October 11th, 2007

How Ireland is building its research capital

Abstract:
"The advantage of Ireland is clear - it has the best funding environment in the world." John Boland is in confident mood. His Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) at Trinity College, Dublin is celebrating a highly fruitful recruitment drive in which it signed up seven new group leaders. "We recruit internationally and we've been very successful," says Boland. Recent signings have come from Canada, Germany, France and Switzerland.

Boland's nanoscience centre is a CSET, or Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology, under an SFI-funded programme that offers industry a chance to taste the research on offer in the universities by going into partnership with academics.

CRANN, which has computer and electronics giants Intel and Hewlett-Packard as its partners, will eventually house more than 100 researchers in a purpose-designed building. At his campus in the US, Boland was never once approached by industry, but Intel turned up within a few weeks of his arrival at Trinity College. "One unique ingredient in Ireland is the desire of multinationals to shift from manufacturing to research and development," he says. Besides hosting researchers from Intel and HP, his centre has already helped to design a platform for Intel to test the proposed marriage of silicon-based electronics and nanoscience.

Source:
newscientist.com

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