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Science And Technology Programs Northern Ireland Peace Process

International research and development collaboration promotes economic regeneration and reconciliation

Michael Freemantle, C&EN London

International science and technology programs are among a number of strands contributing to the peace process in Northern Ireland, a land torn for decades by

sectarian strife. One year after the Provisional IRA (Irish Republican Army) cease-fire, cross-border scientific and technical collaboration between universities and industries in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is being strengthened to promote economic regeneration in both parts of the island of Ireland.

For instance, last year President Clinton launched a "peace package" for Northern Ireland that included pro­posals to develop a program of collaboration in science and technology between the U.S. and Northern Ireland. The program currently is exploring opportunities for network­ing research centers and developing manufacturing part-

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nerships to encourage technological innovation in small-and medium-sized enterprises.

And the joint north-south science and technology pro­gram of the International Fund for Ireland (IFI) specifically sets out to increase the competitiveness of Irish industry and bolster the economies on both sides of the border by encouraging research and development, technology trans­fer, and the development of technological infrastructure. The fund was set up in 1986 to boost economic and social development throughout Ireland and foster reconciliation between the nationalist and unionist communities.

Programs funded by IFI focus not only on science and tech­nology but also on other elements of economic and social ad­vance such as community development, business enterprise, and tourism. Most of the programs are concentrated in the six counties of Northern Ireland and the six adjacent, or border, counties of the Republic of Ireland. These are sometimes re­

ferred to collectively as the 12 north­ern counties of Ireland.

Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. or, in full, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ire­land. Britain comprises England, Scotland, and Wales and is the prin­cipal island of the British Isles. The majority of Northern Ireland's popu­lation are Protestants. They number almost 1 million and traditionally have been committed to the mainte­nance of the union with Britain; hence the term "unionist." The re­mainder, just over a third of the pop­ulation, are Roman Catholics, many of whom are "nationalist" in political aspiration favoring union with the Irish Republic.

After 25 years of "troubles," as the intercommunal disorders and vio­lence in Northern Ireland are known, a somewhat fragile peace is begin­ning to take hold. On Aug. 31, 1994, the Provisional IRA announced a "complete cessation of military oper­ations." The loyalists, who are para­military unionist groups, declared their own cease-fire on Oct. 13. The peace process is moving forward

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slowly, but it is frustrated by lack of trust between the political parties in­volved and the problem of decom­missioning weapons.

The development of scientific and technical cooperation between univer­sities and industries within Northern Ireland, and between Northern Ire­land and the Irish Republic, is seen by many as a key component of the peace process. This is because it con­tributes not only to economic regener­ation but also, indirectly, to reconcilia­tion between the nationalist and unionist communities in Northern Ire­land, and between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

In addition to the Clinton Admin­istration's efforts last year, the U.S. has been one of the main contribu­tors to IFI. Chris Todd, joint director general of IFI, points out that the sci­ence and technology program was one of the first to be supported by the fund. "The program is designed to stimulate collaboration between academic institutes and in­dustry to help them bring forward R&D projects that are capable of commercial production and which will, when completed, contribute to eco­nomic regeneration and to job creation."

Todd explains that the international fund was established in December 1986 as a direct follow-on from the Anglo-Irish agreement signed by the then-U.K. and Irish Republic Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Garret FitzGerald. "The agreement provided, among other things, that the two governments would cooperate in the eco­nomic and social development of the whole is­land," says Todd.

The science and technology program is jointly administered by Forbairt, the Irish Republic's sci­ence and technology agency based in Dublin, and the Industrial Research & Technology Unit. IRTU, which has an office in Belfast, is part of Northern Ireland's Department of Economic Development. In its corporate plan for 1995-98, IRTU refers to the need to develop joint north-south initiatives in research and development.

"IRTU is the agent of IFI in Northern Ireland," explains Jim Keyes, head of IRTU's regional R&D programs. "IRTU's basic mission is to increase the level of innovation, research and de­velopment, and technology transfer within companies and universities in Northern Ireland."

According to Keyes, the IFI science and technology pro­gram has led to movement of young people between vari­ous institutions, and to employment opportunities for grad­uates in both parts of the island. "From our point of view, it has managed to straddle the border," he says. "It has brought real and lasting cooperation and, in short, has been an added bonus to both parts of the island in support of their economic policies."

Jim Swindall, director of Queen's University Environ­mental Science & Technology Research (QUESTOR) Center

Loyalist mural provides evidence of decades of troubles in Belfast in contrast to the pastoral landscape of Northern Ireland.

in Belfast, reinforces the point. "The whole process of gen­erating jobs, keeping jobs here, and providing opportunities for the young people we are training in the university is aiding the process of reconciliation."

The European Union is also playing a key role in funding research and development to strengthen the scientific and technological base of industry in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. The EU classifies the whole of Ireland as a least favored or "objective 1" region. This is a region where economic development is lagging behind the more prosper­ous parts of the union. Such areas therefore receive the larg­est share of regional aid.

The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has financed the development of research and technological in­frastructure in objective 1 regions through programs such as Science & Technology for Regional Innovation & Develop­ment in Europe (STRIDE). The current Technology Devel­opment Program in Northern Ireland is also funded by ERDF. The EU also supports research and development

SEPTEMBER 18,1995 C&EN 11

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International fund seeks to stimulate disadvantaged areas

The International Fund for Ireland (IFI), established by the British and Irish governments in December 1986, is an independent international orga­nization. More than two-thirds of the fund's disbursements in the six coun­ties of Northern Ireland and the six border counties of the Republic of Ire­land have gone into its Disadvantaged Areas Initiative.

The initiative includes a community economic regeneration scheme that aims to stimulate economic activity by providing industrial facilities, reduc­ing unemployment, and improving the environment in the most disad­vantaged areas of the 12 counties. The scheme makes available grants or loans to community groups in towns with populations over 10,000 that have viable proposals for economically ori­ented projects.

"In meeting its objectives, the fund gives priority to the most disadvan­

taged areas," states Chris Todd, joint director general of IFI. "It does so by reaching out to the most deprived communities through a series of inno­vative programs of development de­signed to stimulate economic regener­ation, cross-community cooperation, and the provision of training and work experience. Over 70% of the fund's commitments go to projects in these areas."

The U.S. was one of the first coun­tries to agree to contribute to the fund. Since 1986, the U.S. has contributed a total of $250 million, Todd says. Oth­er donors are the European Union, Canada, New Zealand, and, more re­cently, Australia. The total contribu­tions since 1986 have exceeded $380 million.

The fund is required to take account of the wishes of the donor countries. "The U.S. expressed a wish to see its money used primarily to stimu­

late private-sector investment, eco­nomic regeneration, and job cre­ation," notes Todd. Canada prefers to see its contributions used for busi­ness cooperation, youth training, and exchanges.

The fund is required to spend about 75% of its resources in North­ern Ireland and about 25% in the Re­public of Ireland. IFI efforts in Ire­land have been concentrated in the six border counties of Cavan, Done­gal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan, and Sligo.

According to Todd, the IFI science and technology program has provid­ed funds for more than 60 projects out of a total of almost 3,500 projects, which are at various stages of imple­mentation or completion. "We have calculated that these projects, when they are completed, have the capacity to contribute to the creation of some 27,000 jobs," he says.

projects in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic through its Fourth Framework Program for Research & Technologi­cal Development.

Center enhances collaboration The QUESTOR Center was set up by the school of chem­

istry at Queen's University of Belfast (QUB) as an environ­mental research center-of-excellence to be run cooperatively by industry and the university. In 1989, when it was estab­lished, the center had nine industrial organizations as founding members—three from the Irish Republic, four from Northern Ireland, and two from Britain. Since then, the number of industrial members has grown steadily to 19—six from the Irish Republic, six from Northern Ireland, and seven from Britain.

"Industrialists from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ire­land, and Great Britain have been getting together in Belfast every six months since 1989/' explains Swindall. "We also have staff, postdoctoral researchers, and doctoral students from both sides of the border. It all helps the north-south link and it's very positive. The more communities north and south of the border work together and trust each other, the easier it will be to get an acceptable solution to the problems in Northern Ireland."

Swindall points out that QUB has staff and students from both communities in Northern Ireland. The university rig­orously applies the U.K.'s 1989 Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act, which aims to ensure equality of opportunity in employment for both Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland.

The QUESTOR Center is the first environment-oriented research center of its type in Europe, according to Swindall. It aims to promote industrial, governmental, and other types of support for industry-university collaboration on

commercially relevant environmental research and at the same time provide training for researchers.

"The center is helping to sustain the environmental im­age Ireland has of being clean, well-maintained, and pollu­tion-free—in short, a good place to do business," says Keyes.

The center acts as a facilitating organization for more than 20 research projects currently being carried out in six schools and departments at the university. "We have aca­demics involved from the schools of agriculture and food science, chemistry, and psychology, and from the depart­ments of chemical engineering, computer science, and mi­crobiology," notes Swindall. "The center has been a focus within the university for environmental research and also has encouraged academics to work together across disci­plines and across faculties."

As an example, Swindall points out that QUB now has two mass spectrometers funded by QUESTOR. One is an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer and the oth­er is a tandem mass spectrometer with liquid chromatogra­phy interfaces. "We now have the best facility in Ireland for mass spectrometry," he says. "The spectrometers are avail­able firstly to all departments that work on QUESTOR projects. Secondly, the facility is available to departments involved with QUESTOR for non-QUESTOR projects, and, finally, it is available to other departments at QUB not in­volved with QUESTOR at this time."

QUESTOR-funded research at QUB has largely focused on water treatment. Mike Burnett, senior lecturer in the school of chemistry, for example, is supervising a team working on maximizing pollutant removal by flocculation. The team uses techniques such as cryo-scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy in conjunction with a microscale continuous-flow apparatus to study floe

12 SEPTEMBER 18, 1995 C&EN

structure as a function of pH, flocculant concentration, and the stirring regime. The researchers are also investigating the mechanism of cadmium removal by hydrous floes.

"The main thrust of QUESTOR research so far has been on cleanup or end-of-pipe technology," says Swindall. "We not only have projects on the flocculative cleaning of water, but also the use of microorganisms to degrade chlorinated compounds in effluent. We are also looking at adsorption methods using local materials, specifically peat and lignite, to adsorb metallic and organic pollutants. Both materials are very cheap compared with activated carbons. So, even though they are less efficient than activated carbon, the cost of removing a kilogram of pollutant is much less."

Swindall points out that peat is widely available through­out Ireland and that "there's a huge seam of lignite, 90 meters thick, at Lough Neagh, although the lignite mine has not been developed." Lough Neagh is a large lake about 20 miles west of Belfast.

Steven Allen, senior lecturer in the department of chemi­cal engineering, is responsible for several QUESTOR projects examining the use of peat, lignite, and their derived carbons in wastewater treatment. One project is investigat­ing pore sizes, surface properties, and adsorption character­istics of chars and activated carbons obtained from North­ern Ireland lignite. Another is assessing the ability of peat, lignite, and their carbons to act as agents to remove gaseous pollutants, particularly chlorinated hydrocarbons, from waste gases.

The center provides benefits for both industry and the university. Industrial organizations that support the center are able to provide input into the direction of the funda­mental research at the center, and the results are made available to the industrial members to help them minimize the environmental impact of their operations. The QUESTOR research activities also allow the university to gain a better in­sight into the needs of industry.

"The ideas for research projects come either from the ac-

Swindall (above): programs are aiding the process of reconciliation; Keyes: real and lasting cooperation

QUESTOR students conduct research at a water treatment plant.

ademics at the university or from our industrial members," says Swindall. "The academics do the research and the re­sults are then fed back into industry."

"A lot of the projects are very relevant to our company and to our business," says Jack O Shea, managing director of International Biochemicals Ltd., Dublin. The company is one of QUESTOR's 19 industrial members.

"We are in the environmental biotechnology business," says O Shea. "We use microorganisms to degrade waste of all types. I am a strong advocate of the center. We get an immense amount out of cooperation with them. The net­

working is very important. There are a number of projects we are involved in through QUESTOR. The QUESTOR re­search fits nicely between fundamental and applied R&D. We do a lot of applied research in-house, so it's useful to have an outside influence like QUESTOR to know what's going on."

O Shea agrees "completely, utterly, and entirely" that the IFI science and technolo­gy program, which provided seed fund­ing for the QUESTOR Center, is contribut­ing significantly to the peace process through economic regeneration and recon­ciliation between north and south and be­tween the two communities in the north. He explains that he has attended all QUESTOR meetings in Belfast since his company joined, and has been traveling be­tween Dublin and Belfast regularly since 1979. "Even in the worst of the troubles, I used to go up and down there. I was never nervous, and I've always had strong links with Northern Ireland."

The QUESTOR Center's organizational

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Program forges links between Northern Ireland and U.S. "One of the veiy positive things that has emerged over the past year has been the U.S. response to the peace initiative/' says Jim Keyes, head of re­gional R&D programs at the Industri­al Research & Technology Unit (IRTU), which is part of Northern Ireland's Department of Economic Develop­ment (DED).

Keyes points out that in November 1994, President Clinton issued various directives to his Administration in re­sponse to the peace process. His "peace package" included a range of initia­tives aimed at increasing support for the political and economic revitaliza-tion of Northern Ireland and the bor­der counties in the Republic of Ire­land. In particular, the package direct­ed the Department of Commerce to enhance cooperation with Northern Ireland in science and technology—es­pecially through strengthened collabo­ration with the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) and oth­er programs—to encourage technolog­ical innovation.

Emerging from this package was a joint statement by the Department of Commerce's Technology Administra­tion and IRTU. The statement was signed Dec. 13, 1994, by Secretary of

Commerce Ronald H. Brown, Secre­tary of State for Northern Ireland Patrick Mayhew, and DED Perma­nent Secretary Gerald Loughran at an international investment forum held in Belfast. The statement created a framework for IRTU and the Depart­ment of Commerce to work together with industry and academia to stim­ulate contacts, collaboration, and co­operation between industrialists and academics in Northern Ireland and the U.S. in the development of sci­ence and technology.

The statement prompted the forma­tion of a joint working group. Its initial program of activity was announced at the White House Conference for Trade & Investment in Ireland, held in Washington, D.C., in May.

The program has several initiatives. One of these is to establish a Manu­facturing Technology Partnership pro­gram in Northern Ireland. This pro­gram will work with small- and medi­um-sized enterprises to help them identify and adopt appropriate tech­nologies. "We will set up the partner­ship around April next year," explains Keyes. "The partnership will network into the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Partnership program. It will be party

to its programs of evaluation and in­formation exchange."

MEP was established by the Na­tional Institute of Standards & Tech­nology (NIST) to enable small- and medium-sized companies to benefit from improved manufacturing tech­nology. To date, some 44 centers have been set up in 32 states. Field engi­neers from the centers provide techni­cal advice and assistance to client com­panies. Like many other NIST pro­grams, however, MEP is in danger of having its funds cut off by Congress (see page 26).

The joint working group program is also looking into the feasibility of net­working centers of research and devel­opment capability in Northern Ireland with the U.S. National Science Foun­dation's Industry/University Coopera­tive Research Centers. "We are explor­ing the possibility of replicating the success of the QUESTOR Center [Queen's University Environmental Sci­ence & Technology Research Center in Belfast], and particularly its involve­ment with industry, by exposing a number of our centers to counterparts in the U.S.," says Keyes. "We are cur­rently organizing two missions to the U.S. for this purpose."

structure is modeled on that of the National Science Foun­dation's Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRCs) in the U.S. There are currently some 50 IUCRCs operating in the U.S., administered by NSF's Engineering Education & Centers Division. Last year, NSF celebrated 20 years of successful operation of its IUCRC program (C&EN, Jan. 24, 1994, page 25).

"QUESTOR is an exact copy of the U.S. concept developed by NSF/7 says Swindall. "We do everything the same. We run our meetings on the same lines and we even have a senior evaluator from NSF come over and evaluate QUESTOR as well."

According to IUCRC Program Manager Alex Schwarz­kopf, the secret of the program's success has been develop­ment of a protocol that requires interaction with industry through an industry advisory board that meets every six months.

"I think the QUESTOR Center is an excellent example of a center that has followed the formula," comments Schwarz­kopf. "It is growing very well and represents an ideal case and a very successful one."

The center was launched May 9, 1989, with IFI providing just over $1 million to "pump-prime" the center for the first five years. This funding ended earlier this year. In 1992, the center received an EU STRIDE grant of almost $1.1 million to build up its infrastructure.

In July this year, the center was awarded $4.23 million

from the EU Technology Development Program to extend the center's work into clean technology and demonstration technology with particular emphasis on helping small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). "The addition of a major clean technology arm to QUESTOR will enable us to cover the whole spectrum of environmental technologies," says Swindall. "It is a very exciting development."

The EU-funded project will also enable technologies de­veloped at the center to be set up in the university for dem­onstration to SMEs. "We plan to get SMEs to come into the facility, see the technologies working, get advice on how to implement them, and even receive training on their opera­tion," says Swindall.

QUESTOR has been awarded a project in the Environ­ment & Climate Program of the EU Fourth Framework Pro­gram. It is for a study entitled "Microbial Adaptation to Degradation of Natural and Synthetic Organohalogens," to be carried out by Mike Larkin, chairman of the QUESTOR research committee, jointly with collaborators in England, Germany, and the Netherlands.

The amount of funding generated by the QUESTOR Cen­ter now exceeds $9 million, including almost $2 million from the industry members, according to Swindall.

The funding includes a grant of around $230,000 over three years from the U.K/s Science & Engineering Research Coun­cil (now called the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council) for a joint project between the QUESTOR Center and

14 SEPTEMBER 18,1995 C&EN

the Hazardous Substance Manage­ment Research Center (HSMRC) in Newark, N.J. "HSMRC is the main IUCRC for the environment in the U.S.," says Swindall.

The HSMRC part of the project, which has just been completed, was funded by NSF. The project was de­signed to study the use of anaerobic bacteria with lignite- and peat-derived activated carbon columns to degrade adsorbed pollutants.

NSF has also allocated approxi­mately $80,000 per year for three years to HSMRC for an additional joint re­search project with QUESTOR on in­novations in flocculative water clean­ing. Last month, IRTU announced a grant of about $200,000 to support the QUESTOR work on this project, which involves collaboration with center members British Nuclear Fuels Ltd., Chem-vite Ltd., and DuPont Ltd. (U.K.). "HSMRC is doing the compu­tational fluid dynamics. We are do­ing the actual setup. Their results are being fed into our project/7 says Swindall.

The HSMRC and QUESTOR directors are coordinating these joint research projects to make sure that the research is relevant, appropriate, and complementary, notes Swin­dall. "We will report our results to the Americans and they will report their results to us, so it sort of doubles the val­ue/7 he says.

Technological innovation centers The economies in Northern Ireland and the Republic of

Ireland are dominated by SMEs. To help such companies monitor and absorb scientific and technological changes as they occur, IFFs science and technology program has em­phasized development of industry/university links and cross-border collaboration in R&D and infrastructure projects.

"There has always been good working relations between the scientific communities north and south," says O Shea. "What the international fund has done is provide a mecha­nism to build on these good relations. This has worked very well."

In addition to seed funding for the QUESTOR Center, the program has provided funding for other institutes in Ire­land with cross-border links. One such example is the Insti­tute of Advanced Microelectronics. This is a collaborative venture involving QUB's department of electrical and elec­tronic engineering at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Na­tional Microelectronics Research Center at University Col­lege, Cork. The institute has received seed funding of more than $1.5 million from IFI.

The Joint Ceramics Research Center & Surface Science Laboratory, which is a collaborative venture involving the Irish Republic's Forbairt agency and the University of Ul­ster, Coleraine, also received seed funding from IFI. The center carries out R&D on advanced ceramics and provides

QUESTOR research student injects an effluent sample onto a column to study lignite's adsorptive capacity for waterborne pollutants.

services to industry across a range of technologies associat­ed with materials science.

"These centers have an all-Irish dimension," says Keyes. "IFI has enabled [IRTU] to work cross-border, which would not otherwise have been possible even through European programs."

The current focus of IFFs science and technology pro­gram is its new Technological Innovation Center program. The program, which has now been running for two years, supports on an all-Ireland basis the establishment of centers of technological capability in key technology areas.

Under this program, IFI has allocated funds of more than $1.2 million for a center for innovation in biotechnology. This is a cooperative venture between BioResearch Ireland, based in Dublin and Galway, and Northern Ireland's two universities, QUB and the University of Ulster. The center's program will include an ongoing analysis of Ireland's strengths and weaknesses in biotechnology.

The IFI program is also providing over $1.5 million to develop a biomedical and environmental sensor center that brings Dublin City University and the University of Limer­ick in the Republic of Ireland together with QUB and the University of Ulster.

"It is interesting to note that IFI decided to support this center in 1994 ahead of the U.K. Technology Foresight pro­gram, which identified sensors technology as a key priority area," comments Keyes. The foresight program attempts to tackle the problem of how Britain's science, engineering, and technology can be harnessed to increase the competi­tiveness of U.K. businesses (C&EN, July 3, page 16).

IFI is now examining a range of other proposals for fund­ing under the Technological Innovation Center program. "Technologies involving environmental science, food pro­cessing, and colloidal science are on the short list," says Keyes. •

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