MIT to shut Media Lab in Ireland

The Irish outpost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab is shutting down, as MIT officials and the Irish government failed to reach agreement on a plan to fund the operation.

The closure of Media Lab Europe is the second time MIT has failed to gain a foothold for the Media Lab outside the United States. An Asian Media Lab, was founded in Bangalore, India in 2001, with aid from the Indian government. But MIT cut its ties to the lab in 2003, handing it over to the Indian government after disagreements about what kinds of research should be undertaken at the lab.

The problem this time was money. At its founding in 2000, the European lab received a $45 million grant from the Irish government. Media Lab officials hoped to develop the facility into a self-sustaining research center, financed by grants from corporations. But the grants were slow in coming, due to the impact of the high-tech recession earlier in the decade.

Officials estimated that the Irish lab, located in a former brewery warehouse in Dublin, would need $13 million to sustain itself for another year. But corporate money didn't arrive, and neither MIT nor the Irish government were willing to make up the shortfall. As a result, the lab will begin winding down its operations, with final shutdown coming at the end of the month. Roughly 50 employees will lose their jobs.

Simon Jones, the lab's managing director, blamed the lingering effects of the technology business slump earlier in the decade. ''In the end, it was too deep and too long a recession," Jones said.

MIT chancellor Phil Clay issued a statement, saying Media Lab Europe ''was caught in the economic downturn affecting the digital and telecommunications industries" shortly after the project's launch.

The Media Lab's board of directors, which include The Edge, guitarist for the rock band U2, said that the Dublin center had generated valuable research during its short life. ''It is important to acknowledge the innovative work of the lab since it was established," the board said. ''Much of this work has been coming to fruition in recent months, with 14 patent applications filed and a number of commercialization opportunities being explored."

Adrian J. Slywotzky, managing director at Mercer Management Consulting in Boston, said that the failure of the Irish Media Lab illustrates how corporations are pulling back from financial support of research projects that don't offer a quick profit.

''It is definitely a common problem in the corporate world, where people have been asking harder and harder questions about when will this pay off," Slywotzky said. ''Governments have not filled that gap."

Globe wire services were used in this report. Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.