Foundation to distribute €646m to researchers
The 12-member board, which includes four international academics, was set up to distribute €646 million in grant funding to researchers. So far it has funded 130 researchers, who will receive €245m in grant aid over the next five years. The board of SFI will the chaired by Dr Patrick Fottrell, former president of NUI Galway. He is also chairman of the Irish Council for Bioethics, the Dublin Institute of Technology and the Ireland-USA Fulbright Scholarship.
He will be joined by former Intel vice-president Frank McCabe, who will serve as deputy chairman; Erich Bloch, principal of the Washington Advisory Group; Ned Costello, an assistant secretary at the Department of Enterprise; vice-provost of Trinity College, Dr Jane Grimson; SFI director-general Dr William Harris; Dr Anita Jones of the University of Virginia; Dr Kritsina Johnson of Duke University of North Carolina; Dr Jim Mountjoy of Irish consulting firm Prospectus; Dr Don Thornhill (chairman of the Higher Education Authority); Dr Martina Newell-McGloughlin of the University of California, and former Forfás chief executive John Travers.
