Dr. Graham Love:

This would not be unusual in these types of institutions either nationally here in Ireland or internationally. That is what I wanted to say. Bringing this out to policy and sectoral levels, one will often have a case where IP policy, in the main, may be managed or controlled by a head of research and innovation. Most of these institutions, internationally and here, will have a system or process available where, if that particular individual is involved in a particular decision, he or she needs to step aside. There is a very specific process or set of rules that govern the management of potential conflicts of interest.

I guess it is quite normal in certain scenarios for leaders in research fields - I worked in this field for a number of years - to get into management positions and ergo be in a position to make decisions that might relate to particular pieces of research and intellectual property.