As Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) writes its last cheque, it is timely to reflect on both the scale and impact of its work in Ireland.

That scale has certainly been enormous, amounting to €1.2 billion between 1987 and 2014.

Direct grants to higher education, at €553 million, account for by far the most significant proportion of AP’s giving here. But when one looks at the connections between the various aspects of AP’s investments in Ireland, their significance – both for higher education and society – is magnified.

The year just ended is one in which tax competition among nations took centre stage, highlighting the danger of over-reliance on fiscal incentives as a source of national advantage.

Fortunately for Ireland, investments in our national research infrastructure and the new ideas and talent it generates are providing a more sustainable source of competitive advantage.

The springboard for much of that investment was AP’s funding of the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) and, critically, the requirement to leverage funding from the State – this amounting to some €1.3 billion in exchequer funding.

A central feature of the programme was the requirement for competing institutions to put forward a coherent research strategy of their own. Chuck Feeney memorably said that philanthropy works best “not when it steers the grantee’s ship, but when it helps put the wind in their sails”.

By stoking potential that was latent in the universities, Atlantic Philanthropies’ funding of PRTLI unleashed a wave of innovation which the State had struggled to capitalise on and laid the foundations for the subsequent national Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation.

Challenge-based approach

The focus of public research policy has more recently shifted towards challenge- based approaches.

For example, the EU Horizon 2020 programme focuses on bringing together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and the humanities, to address major concerns shared by citizens.

AP foresaw the need for this through a series of investments related to ageing. These range from scientific research into dementia at Trinity College Dublin to research into the social and economic aspects of ageing at NUIG, with complementary measures to strengthen the voice of older people in the decision-making process.

Atlantic Philanthropies also supported seminal work in the area of participative democracy through its funding for “We the Citizens”.

This initiative, spearheaded by a group of academic political scientists, pioneered the establishment of a Citizens’ Assembly to consider matters of national importance. This seminal work can be seen to have taken root in the 2012 Convention on the Constitution that followed.

Promoting learning

One of the consequences of postmodernism is an enormous increase in complexity of the problems faced by societies and those who govern them.

The reductionist thinking conventionally adopted by bureaucracies frequently struggles with these highly interconnected challenges.

The approach taken by AP stands in contrast to this. It exemplifies a philosophy of enablement and of promoting learning from a wide variety of sources – the wind in the sails rather than the hand on the tiller.

Chuck Feeney’s ultimate success in his dedication to giving while living leaves a tremendous legacy in Ireland.

The inevitable termination of AP’s work also leaves a major chasm.

While a new national strategy for research has been published, the necessary funding to support it is in abeyance. Of equal concern is the tendency to narrow the focus of research and to limit stakeholder input.

The overall environment to support philanthropy also needs attention. For universities, an important prerequisite is to create a stable funding environment.

This would recognise that philanthropic contributions are optimised when they are clearly seen to build on core funding rather than replacing it.

But while these difficulties exist, the lasting impression of Feeney and Atlantic Philanthropies is one of optimism.

In paying tribute on the occasion of the exceptional joint award of an honorary doctorate from the universities on the island of Ireland, University of Limerick president Don Barry said of Feeney: “He helps us to be more confident about the future, encourages us to set greater goals than we could imagine for ourselves and drives us on with the belief that anything is possible.”

Our most fitting tribute to Feeney’s generosity will be to keep that spirit of optimism, enablement and participation alive.

Ned Costello is chief executive of the Irish Universities Association