Professor Cormac Taylor:

I agree with Professor Kelly-Holmes that incorporating both equality, diversity and inclusion and ethical aspects is absolutely essential. On the point about collaboration and international collaboration, I completely agree with Professor Kelly-Holmes and Professor Livesey. This is how science works from the STEM side. That does not mean that Ireland, and individual researchers in Ireland, can not be the world leaders in specific fields. It is important we do not lose ambition or think that in little Ireland all we do is collaborate with other people. We have world-leading researchers in Ireland, some of whom are not funded at the moment because there simply is not the opportunity for them to be funded. I have used the term "sleeping giant of untapped academic talent" to describe Irish universities. It is not just about being fit for collaboration and fitting into somebody else's programme but actually leading programmes. One of the great opportunities of this new research agency is to unwake that sleeping giant, as it were.