Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 6 April 2022
158. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if a status update will be provided on the Next National Research and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18585/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra159. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the budget that is available to the Next National Research and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027 to support postgraduate researchers; and the way it is being allocated. [18586/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra160. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the allocation of the Next National Research and Innovation Strategy 2021-202 budget that is available to support gender equality for postgraduate researchers. [18587/22]
Amharc ar fhreagra161. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if the funding from Next National Research and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027 will directly impact postgraduate researchers. [18588/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 158, 159, 160 and 161 together.
The development of a new National Strategy for Research and Innovation is a key commitment in the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan 2021, which sets out the “dual ambition of placing research, development and innovation at the heart of addressing Ireland’s economic and societal challenges, and building capacity and capability across the research and innovation system to move R&I up the value chain.”
My Department has led the development of this new national strategy, in consultation with key Government Departments, agencies and stakeholders. This new Department has been established with a clear mandate to work with all stakeholders to strengthen Ireland’s R&I ecosystem, drive reform and collaboration, and enhance outcomes which contribute to meeting societal, economic and global challenges.
The new strategy will set a vision and ambition for Ireland’s research and innovation system that all relevant actors will identify with and contribute to, with ambitious yet achievable national strategic goals and objectives out to 2030. Action-led Work Programmes will map out specific deliverables over shorter timescales. This will enable agility and responsiveness over the full period of the strategy and a strong focus on delivery and reform.
I expect to bring the new strategy to Cabinet this month with publication thereafter.The strategy will be executed within the parameters of the recently revised National Development Plan to 2025 and the annual Estimates processes for all Government Departments.
Talent will form a priority pillar within the Strategy and students will be an important area of explicit focus within that. The work of the National Advisory Forum for the National Framework on Doctoral Education will be advanced during the course of the Strategy, including progressing the imperative for a consistent research student experience.
Significant progress has been made in gender equality in the public research system in recent years. The 2016 HEA National Review of Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions and the Gender Action Plan 2018-2020 have been developed by the Higher Education Authority to inform the implementation of a gender equality framework in Irish higher education.
As part of this framework, the HEA Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality was established in June 2019, evolving into the HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in August 2020. In addition to the work in the broad area of EDI, the Centre oversees a number of initiatives in relation to gender equality in higher education, including the Senior Academic Leadership Initiative to award 45 professorships to address gender-underrepresentation, Gender Equality Enhancement Fund, the annual publication of staff data by gender, and the roll out of the Athena SWAN Charter. Certification under the latter Charter is now a funding requirement of the major research funders in Ireland.
I have recently announced a review of gender equality in Irish higher education institutions. This Review will assess the progress made since the first review in 2016. The final report will include an overview of gender equality in Irish Higher Education, focusing on what has worked well, what has not, and what the next steps should be. It is expected to be published in late 2022.
The new Research and Innovation Strategy will continue this progress and we will expand its remit to reflect the wider inclusion agenda, as articulated in the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science’s 2021-2023 Statement of Strategy. My ambition is that over the course of the period covered by the strategy, we will bear witness to a more diverse research community that better reflects the society in which we live, in addition to greater integration of equality, diversity and inclusion issues into research activity itself.
