From 2000 to 2004, McSweeney headed the Directorate-General Joint Research Centre of European Commission, an organisation of 2,400 staff and with a budget of 340 million euro.[3] He was responsible for the development and expansion of the European Commission's Marie Curie Research Mobility Scheme to provide research and employment opportunities to young scientists.[4]
Ireland established the office of Chief Science Advisor to the Government in 2004 and McSweeney took up the position on 1 September 2004.[5]
Diploma controversy
McSweeney was forced to resign from his position as Chief Science Advisor[6] after the Irish Independent discovered in October 2005 that his Ph.D. degree was from an unaccredited institution that had been "the subject of numerous official investigations, state bans and media exposés" in the United States, and that it had been obtained after just 12 months of study.[3][7] The opposition political parties, the Labour Party and Fine Gael, criticised the government for failing to properly assess McSweeney's qualifications.[7][8]
After leaving the science adviser position, he was appointed to a position as research coordinator in Ireland's Department of Communications Marine and Natural Resources.[8]