Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 April 2024
700. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science his plans to allocate increased funding across all career stages for researchers; and his views on the importance of basic or frontier research and the need for parity of esteem across disciplines. [17530/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraGovernment investment in research, development and innovation reached €964 million in 2022, an increase of 30% over 2017 when funding was €739 million. This investment in R&D includes funding for programmes that encompass all disciplines and all types of research. It should be noted that public funding for research is awarded according to the criteria set out in the various funding programmes operated by research funders irrespective of whether the research is basic or applied.
Public funding for basic research comes from many sources, including significant funding through the block grant from my Department through the Higher Education Authority, and through programmes operated by the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).
The most recent survey of Higher Education Expenditure on R&D, published in April 2023, showed that basic research accounted for 42% or the research spend in the higher education sector, or €315 million in 2020. The annual funding envelope is ultimately determined by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.
My Department is implementing the actions of Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy. The strategy will create a more cohesive national system of research and innovation which supports Irish research and innovation in responding to national challenges and in embracing new opportunities. Impact 2030’s objectives include the promotion and support of excellence in research and innovation across all disciplines, and at all career stages of research activity. It also seeks to promote and support the contribution of such research and innovation to Ireland’s economic, social, cultural and environmental development and sustainability, as well as strengthen the engagement between the research and innovation system and enterprise, Government and public bodies, the voluntary sector and society. The strategy highlights the importance of growing Ireland’s international offering and reputation in the field of research and innovation excellence and the importance of advancing equality, diversity, and inclusion in research and innovation.
Subject to its passage through the Oireachtas, the legislation to establish the new Research and Innovation agency, Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland will be a key enabler for realising these objectives, and the agency will support researchers at all career stages and in all disciplines in competing for national and international funding calls. Funding for Arts, Humanities and the Social Sciences will be placed on a statutory footing for the first time. The capacity for all disciplines to have greater opportunity and streamlined access within a more cohesive national system, as well as maintaining the excellent track record of both agencies in terms of funding basic and frontier research, will be core principles of the new agency.
The mutual interdependencies of basic or frontier research and applied research are well understood. The basic and frontier research of now is the pipeline for applied research over the next ten to twenty years. We as a country have an excellent international reputation for basic and frontier research, and preserving and developing on this is a priority for both my Department and the new agency.
