Academic research website a hit

MORE than half a million visits have been made to a website to widen access to Irish academic research.

The facility which opened in July allows academics, businesses, media and the taxpayers who fund most Irish research to find expertise and previously unknown information on topics as variant as social policy and education to cancer research and technological breakthroughs.

The country’s pioneering open access policy in this field has lead to many visits to the site already from Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, the United States, China, India and Korea, and could be instrumental in attracting inward investment to create jobs here, as well as helping Irish businesses get off the ground.