Professor Sinéad Ryan:

Yes. I will make a number of points, including about education. As we know that there is a shortage, we want to recruit more people generally into STEM subjects and particularly to address the gender balance. CERN is an attractor for students generally into science, technology, engineering and maths, STEM, subjects. It asks the exciting and interesting questions with which young people are taken. They get into subjects such as physics, maths, engineering and technology in order that they can be part of it. CERN makes a dedicated effort to provide education for associate member countries and member countries at all levels. There is teacher training - imagine this - at primary school level and secondary school level, not just at university level. It really supports an ecosystem for training and the advancement of technology and IT skills throughout the entire country. This is an important message that CERN membership brings.

CERN is trying to answer these fundamental questions, but in order to do so, it must invent new technology. The questions it asks cannot be answered or tackled with the technology we have available today. That was also true in the past. It invents new algorithms, computers and magnets and we can be part of that work. The 2014 Forfás report identified skill shortages as one of the key challenges for Ireland in the area of big data and data analytics. I chair the scientific steering committee for advanced computing in Europe. We see the convergence of high performance computing and big data. We know that it will not just be for the traditional areas in physics and chemistry, but that it will spill over into the life sciences. There will be machine learning and big data application in the life sciences and dealing with societal issues in the areas of cryptography, security and self-driving cars. We will need to understand big data and be able to manage them. The skills developed at CERN are the skills needed. We can be part of and benefit from CERN.