Luke O'Neill on European Science
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show. With timber living log cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am on Newstalk. Conversation that counts. Well now, I'm joined in studio by Luke O'Neill, Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College in Dublin. Luke, good morning.
Good morning, Pat. You've had a busy week. I have. I've had four days of science in Dublin. We had a visit from the European Research Council, which is Europe's biggest funder of basic science.
Why did the European Research Council meet in Dublin ahead of Ireland's EU Presidency?
Two and a half billion budget a year, by the way. And I'm on the council. I'm a representative for Ireland. And I invited them to Dublin because of the presidency, which starts next week. So we had two days in Dublin discussing science research. It's not just science. They cover all knowledge, really.
And you have some heavy hitters in?
Well, the Taoiseach posted us, Pat. I want to give him a shout out now because he gave a great speech. And, you know, I guess the presidency of Ireland will be exposed of it, won't we? Didn't let us down. They were in awe of him. And I'm not joking you.
How does the European Research Council fund basic science and why does its budget matter?
He gave a fantastically lucid speech about science and research and how he'll support it. One reason for coming, Pat, by the way, is we need increased funding for science in Europe. with the Horizon programme, and he hopefully will champion that. One of our experts said, this could be your legacy. He supports science in the presidency, but he was very much on board, I must say. So very impressed.
Now, one of the reasons that Europe has to get its act together is because, well, America is... Its act is falling apart. Yeah. And the Chinese, on the other hand, are becoming preeminent in pretty much every endeavor in science. They are.
China's tripled its investment in science and research. Tripled it. Can you imagine? So we're falling behind. And this is not being exaggerating. Europe will be a big player in the world of science and tech if we don't wise up. Everybody's saying this, by the way. And it's tricky because the European Commission has to provide the funding for all of this and everything. with the framework program coming up and all the rest. So one of our jobs was to remind everybody of this and say, look, Europe will fall behind, and it's falling behind already. And even though the U.S. is in turmoil, there's still fantastic tech and science happening in the U.S., especially in AI in these areas.
And that's a question, whether we will be enthralled to the U.S. on AI. Yeah. Because the big, the heavy hitters there... And AI are all American companies.
Well, America is threat. Remember, Trump is threatening this, that Europe can't get access to Anthropic, which is a major AI system. So if they own all the technology that we need and we can't get access to it, Europe better catch up quickly. You might have a situation where China discovers a cure for Alzheimer's disease. This is not beyond the bounds of us. And what if they restrict access to new medicines? So Europe needs to step up, really, and play its part and make these discoveries as well.
Now, we talked a few months ago about the possible brain drain from the United States. Is that really happening to any degree?
It is. Well, this is the other thing, which is we celebrated this this week. So there's a thing called Choose Europe, which means can you convince people from the US or anywhere to come to Europe? In other words, could it be a magnet for talent? And the ERC, as we call this, they put up a special fund. We were given an extra 400 million. And Ursula von der Leyen herself was behind this, by the way. So we were given 400 million extra as a fund.
What do recent global shifts (US turmoil, Chinese investment) mean for Europe's science competitiveness?
to choose for people to choose europe and its working path so the first round there's been almost a doubling of applications from the us to come to europe to work in labs and join universities so there's been an increase on that such beginning you know and we hope that the world will respond in other words europe would be the place for you to come to do your research and there's all kinds of reasons and it could be social it could be the political environment work-life balance is better here they're using these as arguments you
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:25
2
Why did the European Research Council meet in Dublin ahead of Ireland's EU Presidency?
0:25–0:51
3
How does the European Research Council fund basic science and why does its budget matter?
0:51–2:55
4
What do recent global shifts (US turmoil, Chinese investment) mean for Europe's science competitiveness?
2:55–7:37
5
Is there a brain drain to the United States and how can the 'Choose Europe' initiative attract researchers?
7:37–9:27