Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 March 2024
1544. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department provides funding opportunities that Irish PhD students undertaking their studies in the Irish language abroad can avail of; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11663/24]
View answerThe Department currently funds domestic research and innovation through two competitive research funders, the Irish Research Council (IRC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), and through the Higher Education Authority’s annual allocations to the higher education institutions (HEIs).
Both the Irish Research Council (IRC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) are independent from political interference in operation of their funding processes, so provision of support to any individual researcher will be a matter for the IRC and SFI. In addition, HEIs are autonomous under legislation. This means that they are academically independent and entitled to regulate their own academic affairs and administrative processes, including in relation to the allocation of funds. Neither the Minister nor the Department has any direct role in these internal processes.
There is no funding available for Irish PhD students undertaking their studies in the USA.
Domestically SFI and the IRC do excellent work on the study, use, and promotion of the Irish language and this approach will continue in the new research and innovation agency Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland.
Support for research broadly in the Irish language is a significant part of the IRC’s funding portfolio stretching back to the establishment of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences. A significant majority of awards are at the early-career stage (i.e., postgraduate and postdoctoral), as is the case with the IRC’s funding portfolio more broadly. The spectrum of research awards related to the Irish language (including Old Irish) and other language spans from small networking awards (New Foundations, Ulysses) up to an Advanced Laureate grant announced in 2023. The IRC estimates that 118 separate research projects associated with the Irish language were supported between 1999-2023. 41 of these awards have project titles in Irish (and, it is assumed, are being conducted through Irish)
SFI is already playing an active role in this area, with plans for further development as they move into the new research funding agency Taighde Éireann/Research Ireland. Fostering diverse, top talent by building, attracting and retaining the academic and research talent that powers Ireland’s innovation society is central to SFI’s Strategy, Shaping our Future. For example, the SFI ADAPT Centre for AI-Driven Digital Content Technology supports a number of Irish language-related digital technology research projects, many of which are supported through the Department of the Gaeltacht and the European Commission. An example of actions undertaken by researchers has been eSTÓR – a national portal that houses translation data for Irish and enables it to be shared and collected among public institutions, including the Oireachtas library and research services.
The portal was developed by researchers at the ADAPT Centre, who continue to lead the project out of Dublin City University. It enables those working with Irish in public administration across Ireland to collect and share translated documents via a dedicated online platform. SFI provides important training for PhD students through large scale Centres for Research Training. For example, the SFI Centre for Research Training in Machine Learning is providing a cohort of PhD researchers with cutting edge research skills in an area relevant to Natural Language Generation.
1545. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to clarify if all higher education grant appeals, which were submitted prior to the establishment of SUSI, have been finalised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11686/24]
View answerIn 2012/13, SUSI became the single grant awarding authority for all students entering new further and higher education courses. Prior to the establishment of SUSI, the Higher Education Grants Scheme was administered by the Local Authorities while the Vocational Education Committee’s Scholarship Scheme, the Third-Level Maintenance Grant Scheme for Trainees and the PLC Maintenance Grant Scheme were administered by the VECs. A total of 66 awarding authorities were involved in these processes.
My Department have no outstanding historical appeals which pre-date the establishment of SUSI. All queries in respect of those previous schemes have been closed out over time.
