“The Department of Education has clashed with the country’s largest State-funded research agency over how taxpayers’ money should be spent, documents show. Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has been drawing up a strategy for the years 2020 to 2025 to guide the direction of future investment …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 20 January]
“Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of the scholarly piracy website Sci-Hub, is suspected of working with Russian intelligence officials to steal confidential research and military secrets from American universities. According to The Washington Post, Elbakyan, nicknamed the Robin Hood of science, is currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice for suspected criminal acts and espionage …” (more)
[Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed, 17 January]
“Academic research is an exciting, creative and varied endeavour, yet there is growing evidence that our culture has developed unhealthy levels of anxiety and stress. As the UK increases research and development spending – all the more important after Brexit – we will see much-needed growth in the number and significance of researchers. Yet it’s clear that we also need to make changes to their working conditions …” (more)
[Anton Muscatelli, Guardian, 15 January]
“NovaUCD (UCD Nova DAC), the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs at University College Dublin (UCD), has been awarded €3 million in funding to develop an AgTech Connector Innovation Hub at the UCD Lyons Farm in Co Kildare …” (more)
[Independent, 13 January]
“What should society expect from the humanities? This question has become pressing in the debate around interdisciplinary research in support of public policy that aims to tackle societal issues. To influence that policy effectively, argues Frans Brom, the humanities must transcend individualism. This would mean not only abandoning ‘outsider’ perspectives focusing solely on criticism of power through individual political action, but also setting up institutions to pursue systematic dialogue with policymakers and the other sciences and to develop the expertise needed to conduct those conversations …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 13 January]
“Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) today published its Annual Plan for 2020. Key priorities are: a continued focus on individual-led research programmes, challenge-based funding initiatives including programmes to address climate action, international engagement through partnerships with funding agencies, public engagement programmes to drive public interest and participation in STEM, partnerships with enterprise and supporting Ireland’s world class SFI Research Centres …” (more)
[DBEI, 9 January]
“For most institutes of higher education, a visit from a publisher is a visit from the business manager. On my business trips, I was seen as representing all departments, not just the sales department. When I arrived back at my desk in the UK, this holistic attitude could not be sustained; our company culture did not permit it …” (more)
[Eric Broug, The Scholarly Kitchen, 9 January]
“Women economists are under-represented across the discipline, from university departments to academic conferences and publishing houses. This column focuses on the editorial process and asks whether the referees and editors of four leading economics journals made gender-neutral publishing decisions between 2003 and 2013 …” (more)
[David Card, Stefano DellaVigna, Patricia Funk and Nagore Iriberri, Vox, 8 January]
“The Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation invites applications from suitably qualified candidates who have an interest in the area of science/research to fill two vacancies on the Board of Science Foundation Ireland. The ideal candidates should demonstrate in their application evidence of at least one of the following at an appropriately senior level: …” (more)
[StateBoards.ie, 7 January]
“An expected move by the Trump administration to mandate immediate open access publication of federally funded research has been hailed a major step away from the subscription journal model, with the expected damage to some of the US’ academic societies seen by some as a potentially necessary trade-off. The White House was widely understood to be drafting an executive order that would follow in the footsteps of Plan S, the European-led initiative …” (more)
[Paul Basken, Times Higher Education, 7 January]
“The Government is increasingly under fire for how the nation lags its European counterparts in funding basic, ‘blue skies’ research, the kind in which real world applications are not immediately clear. During Science Week 2019, Fianna Fáil’s science spokesman James Lawless, stated it was ‘over-concentrating resources around applied-commercial research at the expense of basic/discovery research’ …” (more)
[Conor Purcell, Irish Times, 2 January]
“Uta Frith courted controversy earlier this year when she published an opinion piece in which she advocated for Slow Science, including the radical suggestion that researchers should be limited in the number of papers they publish each year. This idea has been mooted before, but has never taken root …” (more)
[BishopBlog, 1 January]
“Dear Colleague, We are delighted to invite you to submit a paper to the 42nd Annual EAIR Forum 2020 which is to be hosted by University College Cork, Ireland. The theme of the 2020 EAIR Cork Forum is ‘Sustaining the Future of Higher Education’ …” (more)
“Men are more likely than women to frame their research findings as ‘novel’, ‘unique’, ‘promising’ or otherwise positively, according to a new analysis of more than six million articles in the life sciences and academic medicine. The difference was most pronounced in the highest-impact journals in the study and associated with higher citation counts. So the finding has implications for women’s career progression and gender equity overall …” (more)
[Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, 17 December]
“The gender pay gap among third-level graduates widens with time, with men earning an average €14 more per week than women within a year of graduating and €130 more per week after eight years, according to new research from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) …” (more)
[Emer Moreau, University Times, 16 December]
“Publishing giant Elsevier has signed a national license deal with Couperin, France’s consortium of universities and research organizations, but critics say it doesn’t do enough to advance open access (OA) to scientific journal articles. Its terms are at odds with Plan S, a mandate to make publications immediately free to read starting in 2021, which France’s National Research Agency has backed …” (more)
[Tania Rabesandratana, Science, 13 December]
“A pay gap between male and female graduates opens up within a year of leaving college and widens over time, a study by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) has found. While women outperform men in the Leaving Cert and at third level, pay for men outstrips that of women by, on average, €14 per week within a year of graduating, rising to €130 per week after eight years …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 16 December]
“Leading scholars and publishers from ten countries have agreed a definition of predatory publishing that can protect scholarship. It took 12 hours of discussion, 18 questions and 3 rounds to reach …” (more)
[Nature, 11 December]
“Irish universities have secured six out of just over 300 lucrative European research grants which are awarded to the continent’s top scientists and scholars. The Irish performance is an improvement on the last round when there was just a single European Research Council (ERC) grant winner from Ireland …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 10 December]
“Twelve successful applicants representing Academic Institutions from across all regions have secured funding for their projects
Speaking ahead of a special Cabinet meeting on jobs in Trim, Co Meath, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys TD and Minister for Education and Skills Joe McHugh TD today announced the results of the Regional Technology Clustering Fund, the first annual competitive fund of its kind …” (more)
[DBEI, 6 December]
