Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 June 2021
419. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Health if he will provide additional detail on the majority of the funding allocated under health services in relation to the in-house research and development expenditure of the Health Research Board outlined in the most recent research and development budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26339/21]
View answerThe HRB is a statutory agency under the aegis of my Department and plays a critical role within Ireland’s research and innovation system as it sits at the interface between the higher education system and the research system. The HRB invests in data, research and evidence to deliver on the complementary objectives of improving people’s health, delivering significant transformation in health policy and practice and supporting economic and social development. The focus of HRB investment is on patient oriented and clinical research, population health sciences, and health services research.
Health research is key to achieving the objectives of the health system. It delivers knowledge, insights and evidence to address key challenges in our society. It can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of our health services and enhance the quality of life of people throughout our society. Research enables us to develop more effective preventative strategies, better health care practices and treatments, improved models of care and more efficient ways to use human, infrastructural and financial resources.
The details provided below relate to HRB returns to DBEI (Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation) in respect of HRB expenditure (revenue and capital) for the above activities in 2019 and 2020, in line with the HRB Strategy 2016-2020. The breakdown below includes investment categorised in the report as “health services” and “other”. The “health services” figure relates to support for R&D which takes places in Irish higher education institutions, hospitals and other research performing organisations in Ireland. The smaller “other” figure relates to expenditure towards a number of EU Joint programmes. The expenditure is broken down based on the focus and enabler areas set out in the HRB Strategy (2016-2020).
Note: The total figure for 2020 below is larger than that estimated at time of submission to DBEI (by approx. €1.35M) as this reflects actual expenditure at end 2020 and includes additional investment by the HRB in support of the Government’s response to COVID-19. The Covid-19 pandemic presented a unique set of challenges to our health system, society, and economy, and required a multifaceted and agile response and the capacity to make well informed decisions in real time. The HRB responded by redirecting available funding to COVID-19 priorities and by taking on a number of additional tasks. Examples include:
- the provision of evidence reviews to inform public policy responses nationally and globally;
- funding of research projects into medical, social and policy countermeasures, health service readiness, and patient safety projects, aligned with the WHO R&D Roadmap;
- enabling Ireland’s participation in multinational clinical trials to evaluate potential treatments such as the WHO SOLIDARITY Trial;
- working with the Department and CSO to facilitate access to the CSO Covid-19 data hub for research purposes; and
- establishing a national Covid-19 research ethics committee on behalf of the Minister to expedite ethics reviews of Covid-19-related research projects.
The HRB continues to support the national and global response to COVID-19 and further details of the HRB current and planned activities can be found in the HRB Strategy (2021-2025), Health research - making an impact, which I launched earlier this (www.hrb.ie/strategy-2025).
Focus Area 1: Address major health challenges (Innovative, investigator-led and internationally competitive research to address major health challenges in society
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI) contribution |
- |
297,482 |
|
Medical Research Charities Group/HRB Joint funding scheme |
1,006,393 |
354,263 |
|
HRB Health Research Awards |
2,463,722 |
472,254 |
|
Investigator Led Projects |
4,876,649 |
2,055,843 |
|
SFI-HRB-Wellcome Research Partnership |
1,615,569 |
1,737,954 |
|
US Ireland Research & Development Partnership |
678,714 |
955,412 |
|
HRB/Wellcome Trust- Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme |
250,000 |
400,000 |
|
HRB-IRC GenderNet Plus 2018 Award |
168,666 |
100,000 |
|
Irish Research Nurses Network |
34,523 |
48,966 |
|
National Children’s Hospital Foundation awards |
326,628 |
65,861 |
|
Patrick Quinn awards for Parkinson's Research |
128,021 |
118,020 |
|
European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJPRD) |
- |
131,103 |
|
EU Joint Programming Initiative - Anti Microbial Resistance (AMR) |
366,212 |
123,171 |
|
EU Joint Programming Initiative - Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (HDHL) |
220,000 |
155,000 |
|
EU Joint Programming Initiative – Neuro-degenerative Diseases (JPND) |
463,980 |
434,741 |
Focus Area 2: Support healthcare interventions (The design, conduct and evaluation of healthcare intervention studies to improve health outcomes and health service delivery)
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
Definitive Intervention and Feasibility Awards |
4,878,186 |
2,843,484 |
|
European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) |
189,683 |
189,683 |
|
HRB Trials Methodology Research Network (TMRN) |
72,685 |
336,975 |
|
Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG) |
3,184,913 |
3,561,620 |
|
WHO-SOLIDARITY Trial (Covid-19 treatments) |
- |
1,400,000 |
|
Clinical Research Co-ordination Ireland (CRCI) |
159,543 |
1,081,780 |
|
Clinical Trials Research Networks |
1,542,342 |
665,581 |
Focus Area 3: Address the research needs of the Irish health and social care system (Partnership-driven research, information and evidence that meet the needs of the Irish health and social care system)
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care Structured Research Network |
70,000 |
66,614 |
|
Applied Partnership Awards |
1,277,278 |
847,718 |
|
Applied Research Projects in Dementia |
101,639 |
- |
|
Capacity Building for Evidence Synthesis/Cochrane Fellowships |
584,540 |
796,391 |
|
Collaborative Applied Research Grants |
114,490 |
- |
|
Covid 19 - Rapid Response Call |
- |
4,507,775 |
|
Dementia and Neurodegeneration Network Ireland |
71,670 |
81,620 |
|
Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix |
291,653 |
179,544 |
|
Health Research Awards/Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination |
156,535 |
173,484 |
|
HRB Collaboration in Ireland for Clinical Effectiveness Reviews |
502,886 |
468,729 |
|
Research Collaborative for Quality & Patient Safety |
501,899 |
609,879 |
|
Secondary Data Analysis Projects |
- |
108,135 |
|
The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA) |
- |
3,088,967 |
|
HRB Health Research Centres |
521,643 |
487,696 |
|
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing: Intellectual Disability Supplement |
478,266 |
571,865 |
Enabler A: Support exceptional researchers and leaders (Support the exceptional researchers, talent and leadership we need to undertake high-quality health research and generate evidence)
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
HRB Research Leaders Awards & Clinician Scientist Awards |
2,101,618 |
2,254,962 |
|
Structured Population & Health Research Education (SPHeRE)/PhD Scholars Programmes |
1,209,861 |
972,584 |
|
Applying Research into Policy & Practice Postdoctoral Fellowships |
355,422 |
404,733 |
|
Cancer Nursing Research - Project Development Grant |
10,000 |
- |
|
Clinician Scientist Postdoctoral Fellowship |
438,615 |
|
|
Emerging Investigator Awards |
2,106,400 |
2,605,793 |
|
Fulbright Awards |
30,000 |
29,727 |
|
Health Professional Fellowships |
549,152 |
235,719 |
|
HRB Internship Programme |
86,679 |
285,028 |
|
HRB/NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Programme |
23,104 |
- |
|
Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Awards |
474,570 |
213,612 |
|
Emerging Clinician Scientist Awards |
- |
762,300 |
|
Collaborative Doctoral Awards |
- |
1,789,258 |
|
Ulysses Awards |
10,000 |
- |
|
HRB IMPACT Awards |
- |
15,585 |
|
National Cancer Control Programme Training |
8,322 |
- |
|
National Specialist Registrar/Senior Registrar Fellowship Academic Programme |
5,063 |
74,756 |
|
NCI Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention |
23,695 |
- |
|
Summer Student Scholarships |
187,200 |
61,800 |
Enabler B: Build a strong enabling environment (Build a strong enabling environment for health research in Ireland)
|
2019 |
2020 |
|
|
Clinical Research Facilities |
2,198,669 |
2,754,453 |
|
Proof of Concept Technical Model for Data Access, Storage, Sharing and Linkage (DASSL) |
184,416 |
185,584 |
|
Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI) contribution |
75,000 |
75,000 |
|
Public Patient Involvement-Ignite Award |
235,571 |
638,157 |
