IRELAND NEWFOUNDLAND BURSARIES ANNOUNCED

Announcement by Mr. Noel Treacy, TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce, and Chairman of the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership Board, at Buswells Hotel, Dublin, on 12^th December 2001, at 1pm.

From small acorns great oaks grow! This is the hope of the Irish Government in awarding £120,700 to 15 educational bursaries, which will fund collaborative work by Irish researchers with Newfoundland colleagues in five diverse but key sectors.

Ireland and the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador are linked in a new initiative designed to research and create awareness of over two hundred and fifty years of sharedheritage, and to benefit from this shared history and culture by building concrete business, educational and cultural relationships for the future.

This initiative is the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership (INP) Educational Bursary Scheme, which funds Third Level Institutes and Research Bodies in Ireland to develop projects in cooperation with reciprocal institutions in Newfoundland. The sectors in which awards have been made are: Marine Research and Engineering; Information & Communication Technologies; Business Development; Tourism & Cultural Development; and History & Folklore.

The INP was created on foot of an initiative taken, respectively, at Taoiseach and Premier level, to mark the extraordinary ties between Ireland and Newfoundland. The Irish migrations to Newfoundland have made a significant, enduring and recognisable contribution to Newfoundland's culture and way of life. About 50% of Newfoundlanders are of Irish origin, stemming from a highly localised, and largely pre-famine, migration from the South East of Ireland, emanating mainly through the Port of Waterford.

The INP was formally established in April 2001, under the auspices of the political Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into between the Government of Ireland and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1999. The Memorandum commits the two Governments to explore the possibilities of mutually advantageous economic cooperation through government, industrial, business and cultural activities. A sister board, Ireland Business Partnerships, has been operating in St. John's, Newfoundland, since 1999.

The Irish Newfoundland Partnership Board is chaired by Mr. Noel Treacy, T.D, Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce. It comprises representation from the third-level sector, from industry and from Government departments and agencies.

The Board's main objective is to promote economic and related co-operation between Ireland and Newfoundland/Labrador. Activities to date have centred on a number of trade missions in each direction. In September 2001, Ireland sent the largest and most diverse mission to Newfoundland, which considerably expanded the sphere of existing cooperation activities.

The Educational Bursary Scheme is intended to widen and deepen these cooperative activities. Minister Treacy said that his Board had been delighted with the number and quality of applications to the Bursary Scheme.

"The volume of proposals clearly reflects a great interest in the extraordinary historic link between Ireland and Newfoundland. In this context, I am most optimistic about what a small amount of seed funding and a lot of goodwill and shared heritage can do," said Minister Treacy.

The Minister also said that the potential educational, economic and cultural benefits of the projects funded could be readily seen. He was confident that the seed funding provided would act as a catalyst to strengthen and grow the long-term relationships between Ireland and Newfoundland, to the mutual advantage of both. The list of projects funded is as follows:

In the Marine Research and Development sector, 5 awards were made:

• Professor Patrick Shannon, Department of Geology, UCD, is investigating the potential for developing ajoint, intercontinental, Masters degree in Marine and Petroleum Geology, with Memorial University, Newfoundland,in addition to joint geological field courses between UCD and Memorial.

• Mr. Richard McCormick and Mr. Derek Flanagan, Bord Iascaigh Mhara , have established a partnership with the Newfoundland Marine Institute to develop navigation courses based on distance learning training packages, using IT and multi media techniques, for fishermen operating in remote coastal areas and islands in Ireland and Newfoundland.

• Dr. Tony Lewis and Dr. Jimmy Murphy, Hydraulics and Maritime Research Centre, UCC, are exploring the scope for collaboration in Coastal Structures Engineering and Wave Energy with a number of marine research bodies in Newfoundland.

• Dr. Stefan Kraan, Irish Seaweed Centre, NUI, Galway, will focus on technology transfer related to tank cultivation of seaweeds, which will include Carrigeen Moss,which has now become scarce in its natural habitat in Ireland.

• Dr. Emer Rogan and Dr. Gavin Burnellfrom the Department of Zoology & Animal Ecology, UCC, will explore the scope for collaboration in Aquaculture and Fisheries Science, including coastal zone management and fisheries conservation.

The Business Development Sector led to three awards.

• Dr. Brian Fynes and Mr. Michael J.R. Hayes, Transport Policy Research Institute, UCD, will examine the business case for direct air transport services between Ireland and Newfoundland.

• Mr. John Maher, Enterprise & Innovation, Waterford Institute of Technology, will explore collaboration between WIT and Memorial University in the field of enterpriseand innovation linkages, including a masters level engineering management programme.

• Ms. Mai McGrath, St. Angela's Food College, Sligo, will focus on both academic and industry based knowledge transfer from Newfoundland's Marine Institute to establish a higher diploma in food/fish technology.

There were two awards received in the Tourism and Cultural Development sector:

• Mr. Ray McGrath, Waterford Institute of Technology, will work with rural communities in the South-East of Ireland and the South-East of Newfoundland to develop a protocol for assessing heritage based tourism and the educational and training implications involved in developing and managing sustainable community based rural tourism

• Mr. Jack Burtchaell, in association with Waterford Treasures Museum, will conduct research leading to the establishment of a permanent museum display in Waterford, based on the shipping, trading and migratory links between the Ports of Bristol, Waterford and St. John's, Newfoundland.

In the History and Folklore sector, three awards were made:

• Dr. Gabriel Cooney, Department of Archaeology, UCD, will develop student and academic collaboration with the Archaeology Unit, Memorial University, on the protection of historic sites and landscapes in Ireland and Newfoundland

• Dr. Lillis Ó Laoire and Dr. Ruan O'Donnell, University of Limerick, will study the continuity and change in culture from rural Ireland to Newfoundland, possibly leading to a collaborative book.

• Ms. Caoimhe Ní Shuilleabhain, UCD, is undertaking an M.A. thesis on Newfoundland/Irish Folk Culture, with a particular focus on the mumming tradition of the South East counties of Ireland, which is replicated in the `mummering' tradition of Newfoundland.

There were also two awards in the Information and Communication Technologies sector, both with underlying Folklore themes:

• Ms. Rionach Uí Ogáin and others with the Department of Irish Folklore, UCD, will be examining the identification of Irish Folklore Collection Materials of special relevance and importance to Newfoundland, for future digitisation.

• Dr. Marie-Annick Desplanques, Department of Folklore and Ethnology, UCC, will be exploring and cataloguing research interests and material common to Folklore Archives at UCC and Memorial. University, St. John's.

In addition to these 15 bursaries announced today, two further cooperative projects were funded by the Partnership in September 2001. These two projects formed the basis of signed agreements between Irish and Newfoundland institutions in September last, on the occasion of the largest Irish mission ever to take place to Newfoundland. These projects are:

• The Marine Institute of Ireland and the Canadian Centre for Marine Communications have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to transfer marine technology and expertise between respective commercial interests and research and training establishments. This is proposed as a means of responding to potential international opportunities in the area of seabed mapping and associated product development.

• The Dun Laoghaire Institute of Arts, Design and Technology, Operation ONLINE Inc. and the Memorial University of Newfoundland have signed an agreement to facilitate the sharing of e-learning expertise from Newfoundland, and arts and media management skills from Ireland. Funding has been earmarked from both sides of the Atlantic to undertake Phase I of the project. The final goal is a joint masters program in Arts and Media Management, relevant to individuals across the arts community.

Taking these two projects together with the educational bursaries just announced, the total funding of collaborative projects this year, by the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership, amounts to £170,700.