The Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment today announced that €500,000 in additional funding was being made available to the Discover Science & Engineering programme.
Discover Science & Engineering is the national integrated awareness programme, managed by Forfas on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology.
Commenting on the funding announcement, Minister Michael said :'we fully recognise that Ireland can only succeed in long term technological and enterprise development if it has a sustainable base of excellent science. Our schools, Universities and Institutes of Technology, are the bedrock on which this system should be built. We will continue to invest, in the knowledge that we can reap the long term economic benefits for the economy'.
Peter Brabazon, Director of Discover Science & Engineering said that there has been a lot of focus on students choosing science courses at third level but that it is also important to interest young people in the sciences at the earliest possible stage in their learning cycle and that one of the group's key programmes, Discover Primary Science, is aimed at encouraging young people to start thinking about science, engineering and technology in a new light.
He added that the funding will help promote science at primary level through new innovations including expansion of our interactive website, the creation of new modules and accrediting more Discover Centres around Ireland.
To find out more about the Discover Primary Science programme visit www.science.ie /primaryscience.
