60 jobs go at research lab

Dublin-based research laboratory Media Lab Europe is being wound up with the loss of 60 jobs because of lack of funding, it emerged tonight.

Directors of the joint Ireland-US project said they were putting the firm into voluntary solvent liquidation and it will close within a week.

They said the decision was taken because key stakeholders – the Government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – could not agree on new funding arrangements.

Media Lab Europe was launched in 2000 to lead research and innovation in digital technologies.

It was the flagship tenant in the Government’s digital hub centre in the Liberties area of Dublin.

Most of the employees were Irish IT graduates with a small number of but overseas staff.

Last year the Lab advised the Government and MIT it was not getting enough funding to sustain its future.

It went €5.6m over budget in 2003 and said it expected to run out of cash by mid-2005 unless it got additional funding of €10m.

However, it was informed by the Government’s communications department that no further assistance would be forthcoming.

In a statement, Media Lab’s board of directors said: “It is important to acknowledge the innovative work of the Lab since it was established.

“Much of this work has been coming to fruition in recent months, with fourteen patent applications filed and a number of commercialisation opportunities being explored.”

Initial funding came from the Government and the Lab was expected to gradually become self-financing through securing corporate funding for its research activities.

However, the economic climate of the past four years has proved extremely difficult for the Lab, MIT and the international IT sector.

Commenting on the closure, communications minister Noel Dempsey paid tribute to management and staff at MLE and noted its success in “creating a research laboratory unique in Europe“.

He added: “Unfortunately the model is not a sustainable one in the current climate.”