The Irish Research Council (IRC) was officially established from 19th March 2012, through the merger of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) and the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET). The IRC continues the various activities and funding programmes of the two previous Councils. Its broad remit is to support and enhance human capital development, in particular at postgraduate and early stage postdoctoral researcher levels, and encourage independent exploratory research. Its remit covers the full range of disciplines spanning the humanities, social sciences, business, law, sciences, engineering and technology. The funding provided to the IRC from 2012 and to the two previous Councils from 2007 to 2011 is outlined in the table.
A summary of the expenditure since 2007 is given in the table.
-
|
€m Exp.
|
€m Exp.
|
€m Exp.
|
€m Exp.
|
€m Exp.
|
€m Exp.
|
€m allocation
|
-
|
2007
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
2013
|
IRCHSS
|
12.5
|
12.69
|
14.4
|
11.24
|
10.8
|
-
|
-
|
IRCSET
|
22.9
|
25.56
|
26.097
|
21.8
|
19.89
|
-
|
-
|
IRC (HSS)
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
10.05
|
10.5
|
IRC (SET)
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
20.59
|
20.9
|