Mr. John McGrane:

It is an extremely important and potentially very lucrative stream of funding. The circumstances are that the syndicates that represent those research transactions already established under Horizon 2020 in the UK and other projects are consortia partnering doctoral researchers in particular universities. The UK wins over £1 billion worth a year of EU funding from that source and more industry-related co-funding for such projects. It is not just that universities get the money - as we know from universities in Dublin and the regions - but that campuses for innovation spring up around the fact that serious research is being done on a given life science or technical project on a particular campus. There is a complete ecosystem, namely, a cluster of enterprise and innovation fostered by the fact that there is a core research faculty on the campus. In the UK's case, this is funded by EU money. That money is up for grabs for projects that have already been approved but in respect of which funds have not yet been drawn down. Some of the participants are looking for other partners because they are unsure of the continuity of the UK's membership. Some of the research professors are feeling personally unwelcome in the UK.

It is very important that Ireland pitches up in full weight because the other 26 EU countries are equally interested in winning some of that funding for their researchers and universities. First, we must have a plan, second, the participants in the plan have to work well together. There is a challenge for our existing third level sector not only to be well funded but to work well together. I say that without any disrespect to the participants. They live in a relatively defensive environment because of the thinness of their funding, so they naturally tend to protect their patches. We need to open up the structures whereby we can put a national syndicated plan together to bid for that funding sooner rather than later. Very good work has been done by people such as Dr. Mark Ferguson of Science Foundation Ireland. He and others in like-minded organisations, including people at this committee, along with universities and industry partners need to mobilise quickly to put in a consortium bid to ally with those universities in the UK - including Northern Irish universities - which are threatened by this eventuality. We need to move quickly.