Gerry Reynolds
Question:246 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Health and Children if extra funding will be made available to research scientists at Sligo Institute of Technology (details supplied). [4738/01]
Written Answers. - Health Research.
The Deputy may be aware that the Health Research Board – HRB – is the statutory body with responsibility for health research in Ireland. Its functions are to promote, assist, commission or conduct medical, health, and health services research and such epidemiological research as may appropriately be carried out at national level, to assist and support other health agencies in promoting or conducting epidemiological research and to liaise and co-operate with other research bodies in Ireland or elsewhere in promoting, commissioning or conducting relevant research. The provision of funding for health research is, in the first instance, a matter for the HRB.
The HRB liaises and co-operates with a number of bodies in areas of common interest. These links are determined by the nature of the research. In areas of research funding it liaises with hospitals and health boards and it also has informal links with Enterprise Ireland. Following peer review, using either national or international experts, research project funding is granted to the projects of highest scientific merit and this is in keeping with the best practice of international funding agencies. With regard to funding the project in question, the institute should, in the first instance, make application to the HRB.