Research budgets: Too influential

It must be a matter of concern that the outgoing president of University College Cork, Michael Murphy, has rung an alarm bell and warned that Ireland’s research agenda is too heavily influenced by business and industry.

Dr Murphy warned that the sector is over-represented on the bodies that allocate research funding to universities.

The friction between town and gown is as old as the idea of a university but this issue is hardly ever resolved to the satisfaction of industry and academics.