London

Media Lab Europe is closing its doors.

Media Lab Europe, the European arm of the world-famous Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, is to close next week, less than five years after it opened.

The research lab, based in Dublin, was launched in 2000 during the dotcom bubble. It was a joint venture between MIT and the Irish government, which invested €35 million (US$46 million) in the centre. The original plan was that corporate sponsors would supplement the cost of running the lab, which has some 60 staff, including around 40 scientists. But in 2003 the lab spent more than €8 million and raised only €2.6 million. Overall, it managed to hook just eight partners. “It was difficult to attract the corporate funding we had hoped for,” says Sorcha Duggan, a spokeswoman for the lab. In 2004, the lab asked the government to fund its next three years with a €9-million grant, but the request was refused.

The stock-market bubble burst in 2000, slashing the share value of potential sponsors. Observers also argue that the lab's research, which included projects on “the future of human relationships as mediated by technology”, was too abstract to attract investment, especially in Europe, which has less of a culture of corporate sponsorship than the United States.

“It's a bit of a blow,” says Seán Duke, editor of Technology Ireland. He points out that Ireland has taken pride in its ability to attract foreign high-tech investment.

MIT pulled out of its Media Lab Asia in New Delhi in 2003. This followed a row with the Indian government, which wanted the futuristic centre to focus on more practical goals (see Nature 423, 213; 2003 10.1038/423213b ). The latest closure leaves Media Lab with no links to spin-offs outside the United States.