23rd October 2001

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The Assembly’s Committee for Employment and Learning took evidence on Thursday from the Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University, Professor Sir George Bain, regarding the critical need for additional funds for university-based R&D in Northern Ireland. A similar case had been made to the Committee when the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, Professor Gerry McKenna, presented evidence on Tuesday afternoon.

It is well established that Northern Ireland languishes at the bottom of the league within the industrial world in terms of the percentage of regional output (GDP) devoted to R&D. (About 0.6 % compared to 1 % in the Republic of Ireland and a UK average of about 2 %; some industrial economies do even better than this.) University-based R&D is all the more vital in Northern Ireland because it represents a greater proportion of the total R&D activity of the region (about 30 % compared to a UK average of less than 20 %).

The two Vice-Chancellors presented a very similar case:

· The devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland have devoted extra resources to university-based R&D. This has not yet been true of Northern Ireland.

· If university-based R&D continues to decline in real terms this will have a major negative impact on the Northern Ireland private sector (fewer spin-off commercial applications or entrepreneurial companies) and public sector (e.g. effecting the activities of the Departments of Agriculture and Health).

· Both Universities anticipate improved performance in the current Research Assessment Exercise. Sadly, as things stand, there will not be enough money in the kitty to reward those university departments which have improved their measured research output with an increase in funding commensurate with that improvement.

· Through no fault of their own, the Northern Ireland universities are slipping further behind their Great Britain counterparts as initiatives and funding are announced in London which are not being read across to Stormont.

Committee Chairman Dr Esmond Birnie, MLA, said,

"Given what we have heard this week, the Committee argues in the strongest possible terms for further additional resources within the 2002-03 Budget and Programme for Government for university-based R&D. We fully appreciate that the Northern Ireland block of public spending is already stretched.

“It is true that other departments may be able to make apparently more striking cases for extra money. However, we need to think long term as well as short term. The crucial point about R&D spending is that it is an investment. It helps to produce the economic growth which will, in turn, help to pay for, say, additional spending on the health service. Unless the Northern Ireland Executive faces up to the challenge of matching the commitment to R&D already shown by its counterparts in London, Cardiff and Edinburgh then devolution will have failed to lay the foundations for a more prosperous future."

For further information, please contact:

Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk