Ninth Level Ireland

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has today (Friday 7 May) announced €23 million in funding for a programme for post-doctoral researchers to become research leaders. The investment, which is a joint initiative between Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC), will see some 40 early career researchers, across all disciplines, supported to develop cutting-edge projects through awards of up to €550,000 over a four-year period …” (more)

[gov.ie, 6 May]

“The IUA welcomes today’s announcement by Minister Simon Harris TD, of an investment of €3.2m in 2021 to address the funding gap for Irish Research Council (IRC) postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers. IRC postgraduate students will now receive a stipend similar to that offered by other national funders. For IRC postdoctoral researchers, this now brings their salaries in line with those agreed under the National Researcher Career Framework, recently published by the IUA …” (more)

[IUA, 29 January]

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has today (29 January 2021) announced an increase in the value of the Irish Research Council’s research scholarships and fellowships. The enhanced funding of €3.2 million to the Council will better support postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers in Ireland across all disciplines …” (more)

[gov.ie, 29 January]

“Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris today promised a ‘bright new era for research in Ireland’, saying that Ireland’s recent achievements in research funding should ‘only make us more ambitious’ …” (more)

[Jane Cook, University Times, 16 September]

“Today, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, announced a €4.3 million investment in the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme, providing funding for fifty enterprise-focused research awards …” (more)

[Rebecca Deasy-Millar, Trinity News, 17 August]

“The Department of Education and Skills assumes that teachers will act professionally when estimating the percentage mark that their students might have received in the 2020 Leaving Cert, and in the ranking of their students relative to one another …” (more)

[Pat O’Connor, Irish Times, 1 July]

“The Irish Universities Association welcomes the announcement of €5 million in funding grants to key COVID-19 research and innovation projects by Minister Heather Humphreys today. 26 ground-breaking research projects have been funded today (26th April), 21 by the Health Research Board/Irish Research Council and a further 5 by the Science Foundation Ireland/Enterprise Ireland/IDA Ireland …” (more)

[IUA, 29 April]

“The Health Research Board (HRB), Irish Research Council (IRC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) are fully aware that the current situation regarding the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is having a significant impact on the research and innovation community, both in Ireland and internationally …” (more)

[SFI, 13 March]

“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]

“The Presidents of Ireland’s seven universities, represented by the IUA, have called on the Government and the national research funding agencies to urgently address strategic deficiencies in how Irish research is funded, following the outcome of the latest European Research Council (ERC) funding programme. Only one Irish-based researcher was funded out of a total of 408 grant awards from the €621 million funding programme …” (more)

[IUA, 13 September]

“Just one of more than 400 recently announced European research grants has been awarded to Ireland prompting calls for an overhaul in how the Government carries out its own funding. The presidents of seven third level institutions represented by the Irish Universities Association (IUA) have said national funding for primary research is far behind that of other countries …” (more)

[Mark Hilliard, Irish Times, 13 September]

“A new controversy is erupting over State funding for university researchers after Trinity College Dublin (TCD) dropped 44 places in the latest annual global rankings. In a further blow to the nation’s higher education reputation, the only Irish entry in the world’s top 200 tumbled from 120th to 164th in the UK-based Times Higher Education table …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 12 September]

“The Minister for Education and Skills invites applications from the STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Academic Community to fill 3 vacancies on the Irish Research Council. Candidates must demonstrate in their application evidence of the following at an appropriately senior level: …” (more)

[StateBoards.ie, 12 July]

“A new government framework on ‘open research’ states that all Irish scholarly publications resulting from publicly funded research are to be made openly available from 2020. The framework was launched by Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development John Halligan and contains a set of initiatives designed to change the culture of Irish academia …” (more)

[Finn Purdy, Trinity News, 11 July]

“The Irish Universities Association (IUA) welcomes the announcement today by Ministers Joe McHugh and John Halligan of €12 million investment by the Irish Research Council in ground-breaking, basic research projects. Twelve researchers will each receive a maximum of €1 million funding under the Irish Research Council’s Advanced Laureate Awards to conduct leading-edge research over four years …” (more)

[IUA, 11 April]

“Mags Walsh, Director of the British Council in Ireland, has contributed this piece about the important relationship between the UK and Ireland from a research perspective. The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. They aim to create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries …” (more)

[Irish Research Council, 11 December]

“The Government has moved to substantially increase ‘frontier research’ by allocating €30 million to third level institutions in 36 projects approved by the Irish Research Council. Details of the council’s inaugural ‘Laureate Awards’ were announced by the Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton, who confirmed they were in response to a gap identified in critical basic research being conducted in Ireland …” (more)

[Kevin O’Sullivan, Irish Times, 23 March]

“Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Education and Skills, and John Halligan TD, Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation and Research and Development, today announced a €29.6 million investment by the Irish Research Council in ‘frontier research’ projects …” (more)

[Irish Research Council, 22 March]

“Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the sum of moneys allocated by the Irish Research Council in each of the years 2012 to 2017 and to date in 2018 under the enterprise partnership schemes or employment led schemes; the amount recouped from employers in each of those years; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 21 February]

“The Irish Research Council has welcomed the launch by Minister of State Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD of a gender equality task force in higher education. Commenting today, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Chair of the Irish Research Council, said …” (more)

[Irish Research Council, 6 November]