“Trinity and UCD have officially launched, with government backing, their new joint research venture, the ‘Innovation Academy.’ As is increasingly the norm with these sorts of initiatives, claims are being made about huge numbers of spin-out companies and jobs that will result. Of course, in such a goal in the current economic climate everyone in the country would wish them well. However, these kinds of statements are based totally on guesswork (if even that) and the numbers that do result will be judged in the fullness of time. Hopefully it won’t follow on from previous initiatives in Dublin that failed to live up to expectations despite large amounts of hype and funding, eg the Dublin Media Lab and the Digital Hub. But this one is different because it is essentially a means of the universities concerned competing with others in the country to win the lion’s share of research monies …” (more)
[Summa cum laude, 11 March]