I propose to take Questions Nos. 147 and 148 together.
Under Innovation 2020 a new competitive fund to support researchers to undertake project-based frontier research, and to develop as Principal Investigators, is to be established by the Irish Research Council. Funding will be awarded on the basis of the excellence of the research proposals, assessed through a rigorous and international peer-review process. It will be open to all disciplines and career stages post PhD over the implementation of the programme. In 2016, the IRC will begin developing the parameters of the programme along with its terms and conditions, with the intention to launching the first call for proposals in the latter half of 2016. Given the timeframe from the call issue to the award of grants, no funding implications arise in 2016. The funding requirements for the IRC, including the new research frontiers programme, will be agreed in the context of the 2017 estimates process.