I propose to take Questions Nos. 651 and 653 together.
The Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme makes awards of funding to excellent postgraduate researchers in any discipline. The postgraduate awards range between 1-4 years in duration with the annual award value comprising a stipend of 18,500, a contribution to fees of €5,750 and research expenses/consumables funding of €3,250. The Irish Research Council received 1,194 eligible applications to the scheme under the 2021 call.
Applications are open to researchers from anywhere in the world. Successful applicants are hosted by an eligible higher education or research-performing institution in Ireland under the guidance of an academic supervisor or mentor. All applications to the scheme are subjected to international independent peer review under a two-stage process in which each application is reviewed up to four times by different academic experts. The Government of Ireland awards are a key component of the pipeline of early-career researchers in the Irish research system and promote the balanced development of the system across disciplines.
Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship applicants fall into one of two categories: European applicants (Category One) and international applicants (Category Two). Since its establishment in 2012, the IRC has operated a procedure whereby a majority of awards are made to category one applicants. The approach is made clear in the call document for the scheme.
In April 2021, after offers were issued, the IRC Executive uncovered a misclassification of applicant categories on the AHSS (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) on the assessment outcome ranking list, meaning that a small number of applicants were categorised as ‘Category one’ that were in fact ‘Category two’. In making offers according to the ranked order of merit, offers were made to Category two applicants which should have been made to Category one applicants. When the IRC corrected the categorisation and reviewed the master ranked list again it became clear that a number of applicants that should have received offers according to the order of merit did not receive offers. Taking account of declinations that are part of the normal offers process, this outstanding number was 5 applicants.
The Irish Research Council operates under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority and following discovery of the error, the IRC Executive reported the matter to the CEO of the HEA, who is the Chief Accounting Officer of the Irish Research Council. The error was reported to the Authority’s Finance and Governance Committee and, subsequently, the Board of the HEA. The Irish Research Council, having given full consideration of options to address the error, made a recommendation to the HEA Board that it make the 5 additional awards to ensure that the ranked order of merit is maintained. The additional cost is €468,000 over 5 years. The recommendation was made on the basis that no additional budget was being sought by the IRC to implement it with the additional cost being absorbed through adjustments to other IRC programmes.
The IRC Director wrote to my department in advance of the relevant HEA Board meeting advising of the error and the process that was being followed to address the matter within the governance structures of the Authority. In response, my officials noted the issue; the recommendation of the Council to address the problem; the understanding that no additional funding was being sought by the IRC for the additional awards; and that the proposal to address the matter was to be put for decision to the HEA Board.
This IRC is taking a number of steps to ensure that this error does not reoccur. The categorisation of applicants has now been automated within the IRC’s Smart Simple application system, removing the scope for human error in this part of the process. The IRC intends to further enhance automation at all stages of the application, awards and post-award processes, drawing on a recent external review of the system by Mazars. This work will be supported by a new Systems Manager post within the IRC. Further development will take place having regard to and consistent with broader systems and business process development within the Higher Education Authority. The IRC recently commissioned a process review of the Government of Ireland Postgraduate and Postdoctoral schemes, and the Executive is currently considering the recommendations of the review in advance of processing of applications for the 2022 call.
