The director general of the statutory body charged with funding basic science research has expressed his concern at proposals to abolish funding for postgraduate students.
Dr Graham Love was speaking at the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Summit in Athlone, an annual event bringing together researchers funded by the body to carry out basic scientific research and promote cooperation between government, universities and industry.
“I don’t know a huge amount about it yet but I am concerned about what I am hearing,” Dr Love said.
“But If it does anything to reduce the numbers and the attractiveness of science then that’s a deep deep concern to me.”
“One of our jobs is not only to produce good science, we’ve got to make it attractive to the young people of Ireland because they’re going to be the ones who keep this going.”
Dr Love said he understood that the 1200 PhD and Masters students funded by SFI would not be affected by the proposal, which he understands applies to funds provided through local authorities.
The director general was interviewed for Scibernia.ie, a podcast on science issues also broadcast by community radio station Near FM.
[more from SFI Sumit coming soon at Scibernia.ie]













