SCIENCE NATION
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DUBLIN’S HOSTING OF EURO- SCIENCE OPEN FORUM (ESOF) 2012, EUROPE’S LARGEST GEN- ERAL SCIENCE MEETING, IS A CLEAR INDICATION OF IRE- LAND’S RECENT PROGRESS AND GROWING STANDING ON THE WORLD STAGE IN TERMS OF RE- SEARCH INVESTMENT AND CA- PABILITIES. The symposium, which takes place
in July and will bring together thou- sands of scientists, industry players and policy-makers, together with the year-long programme of events organ- ised around it, will further showcase Ireland as a research hub and help raise the public’s awareness about sci- ence in general and about the kind of research work currently being under- taken both in this country and in Eu- rope.
According to Prof Patrick Cunning-
ham, chief scientific advisor to the Government, Ireland put in a bid for the right to run ESOF three years ago because of its progress over the last decade in making itself respectable in a European research context. “We recognised that Ireland over a 10-year period has moved up the league in terms of being a serious country for science and science-to-business,” he explains. “We were essentially claim- ing our place in that world.” Dublin is the fifth city to host the bi-
ennial conference, which began in Stockholm in 2004 and since then has been held in Munich, Barcelona and Turin. “Throughout that sequence it’s grown from an initial 2,000 people to 4,300 peoplewho attended the event in Turin,” says Cunningham, who is ex- pecting the Dublin event to attract more than 5,000 delegates. He likens bidding for ESOF with the
process of applying to host the Olympic Games. “The equivalent of the Olympic Council is Euroscience, an in- dependent Europe-wide organisation. They set up an international jury to evaluate the bids. A number of cities started but in the end it came down to a shoot-out between Vienna and ourselves.”
Dublinwon by a unanimous decision
after submitting an extensive plan around its proposed delivery of the event and a presentation in Strasbourg. “We won because we’re credible,”
says Cunningham. “Ten years ago we would not have had the credibility in science. We just weren’t publishing enough, we didn’t have enough sophis- ticated business in the country, we weren’t well enough known, and we weren’t recognised anywhere as being a country that was serious about sci- ence. “Since then we have improved our
standing to the point where our vital statistics in science now more or less match those of the UK and of the Netherlands. We’re not quite up with the leaders yet, but we’re respectable today.” “Another important factor is the ex-
istence of the Convention Centre. Without that we would have lost points. The fourth factor is Dublin it- self. It’s one of Europe’s favourite des- tinations.” Widening the scope of the event and
designating Dublin as the City of Sci- ence for the year was an initiative of the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser, which got the backing of Dublin City Council.
UNIQUE ASPECTS ESOF in Dublin will have a number of unique aspects to it, according to Cun- ningham. “For example,we have taken all of the policy-related proposals and put them all on one day. Policy Day is an important conference within a con- ference,” he says. Elsewhere, ESOF 2012 is introducing
for the first time four specific inter- continental partnerships, including one with China on science and the city of the future. “That’s an important, well-structured, high-profile focus on what science can do to make living in cities tolerable for people in the future,” says Cunningham. “China is building cities at a huge
rate and they have a lot of experience so we have two of the very best internationally known Chinese experts
‘Wewon because we’re credible. Ten years agowe would not have had the credibility in science’
in this area, as well as groups from DCU and IBM in Ireland and experts from the US and from Europe. Alto- getherwe have an assembly of the very best experts on this issue.” A second intercontinental partner-
ship is with the US, with ‘The Atlantic – a shared resource’ being designated as the theme. This is beingmanaged by theMarine Institute in Galway, in con- junctionwith theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the US. A third partnership with Africa will
focus on science for development and will hear fromformerministers of sci- ence from South Africa, Rwanda and Mozambique. “We also have a very dis- tinguished Egyptian chair andwe have European contributors,” says Cun- ningham. “Again we’re looking at the experience of two continents of eco- nomic development through scientific investment. The fourth one is being led largely by the European Commission and is a partnership with the ASEAN countries.”
SERIOUS ABOUT SCIENCE The central aim of hosting the confer- ence is to strengthen and establish Ire- land’s position as a country that’s serious about science, explains Cun- ningham. “We’ll do that by making a resounding success out of ESOF.
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 17
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