“… In light of what’s recommended in this recent report, it is yet another slap in the face to the knowledge based economy. I agree with cutting back on costs, but some of the approaches I don’t particularly agree with. Cutting back on academia is probably a bad idea for building up a good smart economy, what is likely to happen is with the suggested amalgamation of some of the funding agencies. Irish academics will be advised and instructed to focus on specific areas that this new super agency will identify as a cash cow. In short what will probably happen is that basic and fundamental research will just suffer in general …” (more)
[Jimmy Tang, My Blog, 19 July]