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Taighde Éireann

Posted in Maynooth, Open Access, Science Politics with tags CERN, ESA, ESO, IRC, ireland, Irish Research Council, Professor Philip Nolan, Research Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, Taighde Éireann on July 31, 2024 by telescoper

On 1st August 2024, i.e. tomorrow, a new funding organization comes into existence in Ireland, formed by the merger of SFI with the Irish Research Council. The new outfit is called Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland and many of us working in Irish academia were optimistic that it might improve the funding environment in Ireland, especially with regard to basic research.

Taighde Éireann has not got off to a very promising start. In particular, the long-running saga of who would be Chief Executive Officer of the new organization does not inspire confidence. Professor Philip Nolan, former Director-General of Science Foundation Ireland was originally intended to take the helm, but then he was dismissed from his position at SFI which made the prospect of him taking over the new organization seem less likely. Indeed, more recently, it was announced that a new temporary CEO would be appointed “pending the recruitment of a new CEO on a permanent basis”.

Starting with a caretaker manager is far from ideal, although it probably just means that the interim CEO will just look after transferring activity from IRC and SFI to the new organization without actually changing much. I just hope that in the long run a person is appointed who actually understands research rather than a generic management type. Otherwise the only change that will actually happen will be purely administrative rather than the systemic overhaul of attitudes and culture that Ireland really needs. As an outsider, one way of reading the controversy of the CEO the current SFI establishment resisting any possibility of change.

From my own perspective, the fundamental problem is that research funding for fundamental science in Ireland is so limited as to be virtually non-existent by a matter of policy at Science Foundation Ireland, which basically only funds applied research. This is a short-sighted and damaging policy that is causing, among other things, a significant exodus of talented young researchers to opportunities elsewhere (especially in the EU).

I know there will be many competing calls for changes in practice for the new Council but I thought I would add a few suggestions that will probably be ignored but which I’ll make anyway.

A funding stream should be set up to enable scientific exploitation of Ireland’s current memberships of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), European Space Agency (ESA) and future membership of CERN. Ireland’s membership of ESO provides a cautionary tale. The Irish astronomical community was very happy about the decision to join ESO, but that decision was not accompanied by significant funding to exploit the telescopes. Few astronomers have therefore been able to benefit from ESO membership. While there are other benefits of course, the return to science has been extremely limited. The phrase “to spoil a ship for a ha’porth of tar” springs to mind. Even a few PDRA and PhD positions would provide an enormous boost.
There should be far less emphasis on top-down funding ventures, such as the research “Centres”. These lock up a huge amount of money which makes it much more difficult to provide support to exciting curiosity-driven research, which is often where real innovation occurs. Let’s have much more responsive-modem grants, including areas of basic research currently excluded by SFI policy. This could be done by simply expanding the remit of the SFI Frontiers programme.
The current IRC Laureate programme is inadequate. This currently has one call every four years. It should be annual, even if fewer positions are funded in each round, to allow it to be more responsive.
Ban the use of any funds from the new organization being wasted on Gold Open Access, but invest in Diamond Open Access activities across all disciplines (i.e. Arts and Humanities as well as Science).
Work with Government to provide a much more coherent system of funding research infrastructure, including if necessary requiring HEIs to commit a share of their surpluses to capital projects. In the UK, for example, capital projects funded by research councils usually require 50% institutional contribution.

That’s just five off the top of my head. I’m sure others will have suggestions. If so, please feel free to make suggestions through the comments box below.

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The Cause of Academic Anomie

Posted in Covid-19, Education, Maynooth with tags Anomie, Émile Durkheim, Covid-19, Higher Education on July 22, 2024 by telescoper

I thought I’d share a paper entitled Academic anomie: implications of the ‘great resignation’ for leadership in post-COVID higher education, which presents a new study of 167 academics who quit UK academia, finding they often blame the declining quality of academic management. The abstract is here:

The full paper can be found here (Open Access). In case you weren’t aware the word anomie according to Durkheim, being a state of “normlessness”, in general means the lack of social cohesion and solidarity that often accompanies rapid social change. I’d say there’s a lot of that about these days.

The study relates directly to UK universities, many of which are struggling and some of which are on the verge of collapse as a result of several factors, not just those stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the surprising (and depressing) things about Ireland is that the people in charge of third level education here seem to be determined to repeat here the terrible decisions being taken across the Irish sea despite all the evidence of the damage they have done in the UK. Many of the comments made by individuals mentioned in the paper will definitely resonate with colleagues in Maynooth.

This bit particularly caught my eye:

All too often dangerous managers simply skip from one university to the next causing havoc wherever they go. (RS2 – Male, former Senior Lecturer, pre-1992 institution)

Tell me about it!

6 Comments »

The All-Ireland Hurling Final

Posted in GAA, Maynooth with tags All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final, Clare, Cork, GAA, ireland on July 21, 2024 by telescoper

No prizes for guessing what I’ll be watching this afternoon. Today’s the day of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final at Croke Park, between Clare and Cork. The weather isn’t too bad; it’s overcast and a bit cool but there’s no rain forecast and it’s not windy. I’m hoping for a good match.

Clare (An Clár) versus Cork (Corcaigh) is not the final I would have predicted before the semi-finals. I thought Limerick and Kilkenny would be the finalists but that just goes to show how little I know. Cork are favourites with the bookies, by the way (4/7 on Cork, 11/8 against Clare) despite the fact that Clare of won the last two encounters between these teams.

If you’ve never been in Ireland for this occasion you won’t realize what a huge event it is. The atmosphere on this very special day is very much like it used to be in England for the FA Cup Final when I was a kid and the build-up just as long, with constant references on both radio and TV. Maynooth is on the railway line going through Croke Park so we see a lot of supporters in their team colours heading to the match. County Clare (which is in the West of Ireland, straddled by Limerick to the South and Galway to the North) is a bit closer to us than County Cork, which perhaps accounts for the preponderance of blue and gold over red and white.

You can watch the whole game live on BBC2 if you’re in the UK. Throw-in is at 3.30pm.

Update: The attendance is 82,300.

Update: HT score Clare 1-12 Cork 1-12. It’s been a much more open game than I expected. Cork started out the stronger team, finding lots of space in the Clare half and shooting very accurately. Robert Downey scored a memorable goal at which point it looked like Cork might overrun Clare, but that didn’t happen and as the half drew to a close Clare became more confident. It’s all square and poised for an exciting second half.

Update: FT score Clare 3-21 Cork 1-27. What an epic game this is! All square on points after Clare conceded a silly free in the dying seconds to allow Cork to equalize. We go to extra time!

Update: Final Score Clare 3-29 Cork 1-34. Drama to the last second, a long free from the Cork goalie lands in the area but Robbie O’Flynn’s shot to tie the game goes agonizingly wide. Clare are the All-Ireland Champions by one-point. What a breathtaking match. Hats off to both teams for serving up a classic! I wouldn’t have complained if it had gone to a replay though…

Here is a clip of Clare’s amazing 3rd goal, scored by Tony Kelly…

3 Comments »

Royal Society/SFI University Research Fellowships

Posted in Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff on July 20, 2024 by telescoper

I just realized that I had forgotten to give notice of an important scheme run jointly between the Royal Society and Science Foundation Ireland that gives early career researchers in Ireland access to University Research Fellowships. In previous years I’ve passed this on ahead of the opening of the scheme, but it is already open. In fact there was a Zoom webinar for Irish applicants on 17th July, which has now passed. The deadline is not until 10th September, however, so there is time to apply.

This scheme provides eight years of research funding and has proved to be a stepping stone to their first permanent academic position for a great many scientists. Here are a couple of items about the eligibility and duration.

Eligibility: The scheme is open to early career Post Doctoral Researchers with between 3-8 years of actual research experience since their PhD (date on which the degree was approved by board of graduate studies) by the closing date. You cannot apply if you hold a permanent post in a university.

Funding and Duration: Once upon a time this scheme provided funding of the research fellow’s salary and research expenses for an initial period of 5 years with the possibility to apply for a further 3 years. A couple of years ago this changed, however, and applicants are now asked to provide a proposal for a project lasting eight years which is subject to a mid-term review.

Key Dates: Applications need to be in by 3pm 10th September 2024 at 3pm UK time.

For further details and further developments see here.

The scheme covers a wide range of disciplines. including physics and astronomy. Of course if you want to do cosmology, either observational or theoretical, the best place to do it in Ireland is here in Maynooth but we also do, e.g. condensed matter theory and particle physics.

The deadline is not far off, so please get cracking. You will need to get a statement of support from the relevant Head of Department at your chosen institution, so you need to make contact with your prospective host as soon as possible.

A Lamentation of Swans

Posted in Maynooth with tags Birds, Kildare Wildlife Rescue, Maynooth, Maynooth Harbour, nature, Royal Canal, swan, Swans, wildlife on July 18, 2024 by telescoper

The Harbour Swans and their Island, pictured last April

I was looking forward to making acquaintance with the beautiful swans of Maynooth when my sabbatical is over, but I’ve heard that recent tragic events mean that won’t be happening. The title of this post is not a reference to the collective noun for swans, but literally a lamentation.

A pair of swans had been nesting for several years on the little island in the harbour of the Royal Canal at Maynooth for several years- since before I arrived here. Every spring they have raised a batch of cygnets and these have grown up each summer and departed for a new life elsewhere. I’ve always enjoyed watching the little ones grow and learn how to find food under the very watchful eye of their parents. I had no reason to think things would be any different this year. I was wrong.

The first calamity to occur, earlier this year, was that the island flooded destroying this year’s batch of eggs. The swans tried again, and managed two more cygnets, but neither survived. I’m not sure exactly what happened but it seems, various locks were opened to allow water into the section of the canal England has a much more extensive system of waterways than Ireland and when rivers are close to flooding, water is often diverted into canals to stop them breaking their banks. I guess this is what happened earlier, but I don’t know.

It was bad enough that there are no cygnets this year, but worse was to come. Recently the female swan (pen) was found to be very ill. She was taken away by Kildare Wildlife Rescue (KWR) team and cared for but sadly passed away. All I know is that it seemed to be “an infection” which may or may not be the same cause of death as the cygnets. Avian flu is a possibility, so is some form of poisoning such as botulism. Sadly, people do feed the birds in the harbour with inappropriate things so this might also be a contributing factor.

What about the male swan (cob)? Well, he has gone. I don’t know whether he died too or whether he just left. Swans mate for life and I’ve heard of cases when one of a pair has simply pined away when the other has died.

So there are no swans nesting in Maynooth anymore. It’s really very sad. Swans are beautiful creatures and the pair on the canal was really well known to the community. I hope that another pair will nest on the island before too long. It may even be that a pair of rescue birds will be rehomed there by KWR. Before that happens though, I hope they find out why exactly caused the swans to die. We don’t want more deaths

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An Leabharlann

Posted in Biographical, History, Irish Language, Literature, Maynooth, Poetry with tags Books, Libraries, Maynooth, Maynooth Library on July 15, 2024 by telescoper

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, over the past year or so I’ve been trying to catch up on my reading. My stack of books I’ve bought but never read is now down to half-a-dozen or so.

With sabbatical drawing to a close, the next major life even appearing on the horizon is retirement. Since that will involve a considerable reduction in income, and consequently money to buy books, and my house already has quite a lot of books in it, I thought I’d join the local public library so that when I’ve cleared the backlog of bought books, I’ll read books from the library instead.

With that in mind, I just joined the public library on Main Street, Maynooth, which is only about 15 minutes’ walk from my house. It’s a small branch library but is part of a larger network across County Kildare, with an extensive online catalogue from which one can acquire books on request. All this is free of charge.

Once I got my card, I had a quick look around the Maynooth branch. It has a good collection of classic literature (including poetry) as well as Irish and world history, which will keep me occupied for quite a while. The normal loan period is 3 weeks, which provides an incentive to read the book reasonably quickly.

I borrowed books in large quantities from public libraries when I was a child. I’m actually looking forward to getting into the library habit again.

5 Comments »

Poppies in July Again

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth, Poetry with tags Leaving Certificate, Poppies in July, Sylvia Plath on July 3, 2024 by telescoper

I just passed by some poppies growing on a rather scruffy piece of verge near my house. They reminded me of this poem by Sylvia Plath, which I have posted before.

Incidentally, this poem is among those of Sylvia Plath specified for the Leaving Certificate examination in English next year…

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Farewell to Barcelona

Posted in Barcelona, Maynooth with tags Aer Lingus, Barcelona, Ryanair, Taylor Swift on June 30, 2024 by telescoper

Two things threatened to complicate my return from Barcelona today.

The first was industrial action by Aer Lingus pilots, which started last week. When the list of cancellations caused by the first stage of this ( a work to rule) was announced, I checked to see which flights were affected and found the Barcelona-Dublin route wasn’t among them.

The other matter was Taylor Swift’s residence of three concerts in her ‘Eras” Tour in Dublin this weekend, making flights very busy (and more expensive than usual).

Taylor Swift was performing in Sydney when I was there earlier this year and in the UK when I was there earlier this month. I think she’s following me around. I’m sure she only wants me for my money…

Anyway, owing to the combination of these circumstances, and the probability of escalation of the industrial dispute, I decided not to take a chance on Aer Lingus but instead to opt for an early morning flight with Ryanair. Although I had to get up at 4am (3am Irish Time) to get the plane back to Dublin, all went according to plan. The Barcelona airport bus, incidentally, runs all night.

My own personal ‘Eras’ Tour (i.e. sabbatical) is not over until the end of August, but I’ll be spending the rest of it somewhere a bit cooler and with less hustle and bustle. But first I have to get my laptop sorted…

It just remains for me to thank publicly the staff and students of the ICCUB, especially Raul and Licia, for making me so welcome in Barcelona for the past 9 months (off and on).

Now I think a little siesta is called for…

An All-Ireland Diamond Open Access Publishing Platform?

Posted in Maynooth, Open Access with tags academic publishing, Diamond Open Acccess, journals, MDPI, Open Access, Publishing, research on June 24, 2024 by telescoper

Here’s a report on an interesting development about Open Access in Ireland. The article belongs to the Special Issue 10th Anniversary Special Issue “PUBMET2023 Conference on Scholarly Communication in the Context of Open Science” and has the following abstract:

The Government of Ireland has set a target of achieving 100% open access to publicly funded scholarly publications by 2030. As a key element of achieving this objective, the PublishOA.ie project was established to evaluate the feasibility of establishing an all-island [Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland] digital publishing platform for Diamond Open Access journals and monographs designed to advance best practice and meet the needs of authors, readers, publishers, and research funding organisations in Irish scholarly publishing. It should be noted in this context that there is substantial ‘north–south’ cooperation between public bodies in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, some of whom operate on what is commonly termed an ‘all-island’ basis. The project commenced in November 2022 and will run until November 2024, with the submission of a Final Report. This article originated as an interim project report presented in September 2023 at the PubMet2023 conference in Zadar, Croatia. The project is unique in its mandate to report on the feasibility of a shared platform that will encompass scholarly publishing across the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, which are now, post-Brexit, inside and outside the European Union (EU): the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. The project is co-led by the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), Ireland’s leading body of experts in the Sciences and Humanities, and the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute of Trinity College Dublin. There are sixteen partners and affiliates from universities and organisations from the island of Ireland. The feasibility study will be based on a review of the publishing practices in the island of Ireland, with gap analysis on standards, technology, processes, copyright practices, and funding models for Diamond OA, benchmarking against other national platforms, and specifications of the requirements, leading to the delivery of a pilot national publishing platform. A set of demonstrator journals and monographs will be published using the platform, which will be actively trialled by the partner publishers and authors. PublishOA.ie aims to deliver an evidence-based understanding of Irish scholarly publishing and of the requirements of publishers to transition in whole or in part to Diamond OA. This paper provides an interim report on progress on the project as of September 2023, ten months after its commencement.

I think the idea of having a national Diamond Open Access publishing platform is a very interesting one. In principle it could facilitate the federated system of repositories linked by refereeing overlays which I think is the future of academic publishing. I think a national peer review platform would be more to the point than a publishing platform.

I have two comments:

I am surprised that Maynooth University – publisher, among other things, of the Open Journal of Astrophysics (a Diamond Open Access journal) – is not among the partners in this project and does not even receive a mention as a publisher. I wonder how far this project will get if it excludes organizations that are already running Diamond Open Access Journals.
Less of a comment, more of a question: why on Earth is the report published in a journal run by MDPI, a publisher that is controversial (to say the least)? It would be deeply ironic if they had to pay an APC to publish an article on Diamond Open Access!

7 Comments »

The Nolan Case

Posted in Maynooth, Science Politics with tags Peter Clinch, Philip Nolan, Science Foundation Ireland, SFI on June 13, 2024 by telescoper

A couple of weeks ago I posted an item about the sudden departure of Prof. Philip Nolan from his post as Director General of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) after allegations of misconduct (including bullying). That post included these words:

As an outsider I have no idea what has been going on at SFI, so have no dirt to dish, but it must have been rather serious for Prof. Nolan to have been forced out so quickly.

Despite that clear statement I have received a number of emails from “journalists” asking for gossip. Obviously I didn’t reply to them.

Anyway, it’s not only the sudden decision that led to Prof. Nolan’s dismissal that is striking; there’s also the fact that no formal disciplinary process took place and it was accompanied by immediate termination of his access to emails, etc. Actions so extreme are usually reserved for situations in which a staff member has committed gross misconduct, but that is not the accusation here.

Anyway, just a few days after his apparent departure from SFI, Prof. Nolan went to court and obtained a temporary injunction restraining his dismissal ahead of a further hearing about the case which began on 11th June and has not yet completed. Although no longer fired, Prof. Nolan has not been allowed physically to return to work.

I have no idea how this mess will end. It does seem that there must have been a complete meltdown in SFI that will be very difficult to reverse. Perhaps the best way forward is to hasten the end of SFI and the beginning up of the new entity (Taighde Éireann– Research Ireland) supposed to be formed by the merger of SFI with the Irish Research Council.

I have no idea who is in the wrong at SFI. Perhaps both sides are. However, for the record, I will state that when my Mam died in 2019 Prof. Nolan (who was President of Maynooth University at the time) sought me out and offered his condolences in person. That was a kind gesture that I greatly appreciated at the time, and one which few University managers I have known would have made in the circumstances. Certainly not the current President of Maynooth University.

P.S. I discovered from reading this article about the Nolan Case that the Chairman of the Board of Science Foundation Ireland, Professor Peter Clinch, an economist; presumably no actual scientists were available.

In the Dark