IRELAND

2013, Ireland ranked in the top twenty countries for research impact and
in the top 1% in the world in 19 of the 22 Essential Indicator Fields. Most
impressively, in the disciplinary area of immunology, Ireland ranked first
in the global index on research impact. However, between 2011 and 2012,
for the first time in over a decade, Ireland’s relative performance dipped
in terms of publications output and overall impact.
‘We find that in many of the sciences, it’s things
like astronomy, particle physics, quantum physics,
relativity, that turns them on as teenagers and
gets them into science in the first place’
discovery Ireland 30,31
Above all else, the submissions made by the research community and
other stakeholders underlined three critical points: firstly, the importance
of research as a facet of higher education and its importance in
developing human capital – independent thinkers, creators, and
problem-solvers who can be flexible; secondly, the importance of
maintaining a balanced research ecosystem and; thirdly, the rewarding of
excellence wherever it may be found or however it might be directed.
The danger inherent in this approach to funding was averred by, amongst
others, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). It emphasized
the importance of paying more ‘attention to the need for investment in
underpinning basic science. Prioritisation must not mean that only the
priority areas have any prospect of funding, or the educational system
will become badly distorted to the ultimate detriment of the priority
areas themselves.’ To that extent, the broad thrust of the approaches
favoured by Ireland’s higher education sector accord with best
international experience, as revealed by a January 2014 report
commissioned by the UK Department of Business Innovation. It carried
out an exercise benchmarking global RDI systems and identified the
common traits of the most successful systems, among the most important
of which was a ‘balance between curiosity driven research (“pure”) and
needs driven research (“applied”)’.
The reference here to ‘curiosity’ is crucial. The word surfaces repeatedly –
and with good reason. For the discovery of the unexpected through research
is firmly rooted in the principle of the pursuit of knowledge through
academic curiosity. Undertaking a project based on that principle accepts
that a predetermined outcome is impossible. It must be equally accepted
that some such research might end with little or no impact, just as other
research reveals dramatic new possibilities that change the way people live
and how societies operate. The very nature of research is that it is impossible
to know in advance what might be its outcome and, consequently, its impact.
In her celebrated commencement address to the students of Harvard
University in 2008, the author J.K. Rowling spoke at length about the
importance of being willing to fail and of the benefits failure can bring in
its capacity for liberation. Rowling, best known for the stellar success of the
Harry Potter series of books, spoke of the fear of failure and how she
sought to vanquish that fear. It was not, she said, that failure was fun, but
that it ultimately was an essential part of the process of life and work: ‘It is
impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously
that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by
default.’ Alongside the willingness to fail, Rowling extolled ‘the crucial