DUBLIN—Approval of the EEC’s Framework program is important news for Irish scientists, whose country relies heavily on the joint projects to augment the low level of support from their own government.
“Basically, it means that people like me are working here rather than abroad,” said Edel Stephens, technical manager for software development at a small firm doing EEC-backed work.
With support at levels far below the rest of the EEC (Ireland spends 0.8 percent of its gross national product on research compared with the EEC average of 2 percent, and 2.7 percent for the United States), Ireland has supplemented its $108 million spending with various European projects. Esprit, the program on new information technology, alone has brought in nearly $10 million since 1984.
“The EEC contribution is vitally important because we have no national funds worth talking about,” said John Byrne, head of the department of computer science at Trinity ...
