Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 October 2022
517. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of PhD researchers who will qualify for the €500 stipend increase that he announced in budget 2023; the proportion of PhD researchers that this represents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48489/22]
View answer518. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the number of PhD researchers in Ireland; the number of these who are in receipt of Science Foundation Ireland and Irish Research Council-funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48490/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 517 and 518 together.
I can only respond to the Deputy’s question in terms of the student numbers supported by my Department through Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, and on student numbers as reported by the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the latest Higher Education Research and Development Survey (HERD) survey.
The HERD Survey is undertaken every two years to monitor the level of research and development activities in the higher education sector. Its latest iteration was published in January 2021 and can be accessed on: www.gov.ie/en/publication/00d67-higher-education-research-and-development-survey-2018-2019/.
The next HERD survey will be published in December 2022.
According to the latest data from the HERD Survey,(2018) there are a total of 9,964 PhD and research masters students. Of this, Irish HEIs had 2,120 internally-funded PhD and Research Master students. In the HERD Survey, 'Internally-funded' includes students who receive stipends, who are wholly funded by their institution's internal scheme (Recurrent Grant), who get only fees paid by the HEI, and staff who are doing PhDs/Master's in their own HEI.
As at 1/9/22, there were 2,022 PhD Students directly attributed to active SFI awards and the Irish Research Council is currently supporting 1143 PhD researchers across its range of funding programmes.
As approximately 4,000 students are understood to self-fund, the Budget measure covers approximately half of all PhD students supported by a research funder.
