May 8 2008
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mr Micháel Martin TD, announced on the 7th of May 2008 the signing into law of new Regulations to amend the remit of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) to include sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies.
The Regulations (SI No 134/2008) are in fulfilment of the commitment in the Programme for Government 2007-2012 to amend the remit of SFI to include a third research pillar in these areas. The Regulations prescribe sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies as strategic areas of scientific endeavour in addition to the areas of ICT and biotechnology specified in section 7(3) of the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) Act 2003.
Making the announcement, Minister Martin said, “The provision of sustainable energy and efficient-energy technologies is a vital component of long-term economic development for Ireland. The signing into law of these regulations will allow SFI to build a world-class research capacity in these areas and will provide a solid basis to address Ireland’s challenges in the sustainable energy field “
The Regulations follow the agreement between the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to combine resources and to target a world-class research capacity investment through SFI of €90 million in these areas, over the period to 2013, details of which were announced at the Energy Summit held in March this year.
Minister Martin continued, “SFI’s focus is clearly on research excellence to enhance Ireland’s human capital in strategic areas of scientific endeavour relevant to the future competitiveness of industry and enterprise. SFI has been very successful in building Ireland’s research capacity in the fields of information and communications technology and biotechnology, and I am sure that this success will be replicated with this new energy remit.”
Concluding Minister Martin highlighted the important role Ireland and the rest of Europe can play in addressing the challenges of climate change and the need for new sustainable energy sources “We can as a Member State of the EU play an important role in accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy and energy efficient technologies. We need to give leadership and renewed direction to energy research to support our energy and climate change goals and our energy enterprise and competitiveness. I believe that the Lisbon Reform Treaty provides us with the proper framework to meet the challenges we now face”