jtang/ blog/ posts/ What does an economist know about Science and Technology

To follow up on my previous rant Current state of affairs for Ireland in light of "An Bord Snip Nua", http://www.siliconrepublic.com were nice enough to publish a few brief overviews of the recent An Bord Snip Nua report. Though they do lack any real commentary on the issues. It seems they are waiting for a popular opinion to rise so they can summarise the feelings and opinions of the general public who do care.

These three articles caught my eye

I guess the first article's commentary makes sense, but the second article clearly points at another slap in the face to basic research, science and technology. Without basic research there can be no innovation, how does one expect to commercialise on science and technology if the academic is not allow to experiment and try out new ideas and so on.

All I can do is still sigh at some of the findings and recommendations published for third level institutions. Colm McCarthy is probably thinking "What could possibly go wrong with cutting off funding to science and tech?!". The view is a quick intermediate saving for the next 1-2yrs to keep the deficit down. In the long run, there will be even less innovation and commercialisation of ideas. This would make it even less appealing for a phd graduate to want to stay in Ireland.

Right now, Irelands smart economy seems to me to be nothing more than highly educated grunts for the Intel's, IBM's, Google's and Nokia's etc... As Frau Klein pointed out and the report as well, the ICT sector will move to where ever it's cheapest, not being an expert at running an economy, I'm not sure what I would do in the governments shoes. Cutting salaries and raising the retirement age is certainly a start. Perhaps making science and technology sexy again for young people is another thing that can be done by the third level institutions as well.

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