4051. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to address the concerns raised (details supplied) to research funding in Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60137/26]

The approval of schemes for competitive funding of research and innovation, subject to public sector expenditure practices, are legislatively a matter for the Board of Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland. Given the broad concerns of the research community outlined in the open letter, I facilitated a meeting between Research Ireland and representatives of the signatories of the open letter on 24th June. While I fully acknowledge the prestige and status that the existing programme commands within the research community, I understand and accept Research Ireland’s rationale for transitioning to a new model. At that meeting I requested that Research Ireland undertake a structured engagement process on the Empower Programme to ensure that the design of the institutional funding model be progressed in a way that ensures a wide range of inputs and commands broad confidence in the research community.

I requested that the finalisation of the design of the institutional funding model be progressed in a way that ensures a wide range of inputs and commands broad confidence in the research community. In addition, I set two conditions which address immediate concerns raised with me. These have been carried fully into the programme: no current Government of Ireland funded scholar will lose their funding or see any reduction in stipends or award conditions, and the model has been designed with explicit care to protect provision across all disciplines.

I have assessed the engagement on the basis of its results, which I believe are important and have emerged directly from very constructive inputs. They address concerns relating to quality, transparency, reach and status. The programme that will launch in the autumn is in significant respects materially different from the one first proposed and I welcome the following in particular:

• The commitment to further ongoing consultation and the immediate establishment of the Academic Advisory Council to the Board as provided for under legislation.

• Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) have commenced work on

a complementary, nationally administered fellowship awarded in the scholar's own name through independent peer review – thereby addressing concern at the potential lack of a national scheme to recognise the highest levels of excellence.

• Government of Ireland branding is retained.

• Institutional recruitment arrangements will themselves be subject to international peer review, with active post-award monitoring.

• A commitment to review the schemes progress at the one-year mark.

• A larger competitive funding element has been introduced and the tiered model removed.

• References to national priorities have been deleted, with explicit confirmation that no economic impact or industry engagement is required and that curiosity-driven research across all disciplines remains fully supported.

• Disciplinary balance is now an explicit programme principle under Taighde Éireann - Research

Ireland oversight.

• Researcher supports are confirmed in full, including stipends with no gap in recruitment.

As set out in the report three matters were central to the engagement as set out below.

Excellence. The Government of Ireland programme earned its standing because every award was anchored in rigorous, independent assessment of individual scholarly excellence, and it was essential to me that this anchor is carried into Empower. I have therefore asked Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland to ensure that, while fully respecting institutional decision-making on the design of recruitment models, each institution, in whatever way it determines is best suited to its own structures, demonstrates that the excellence criterion that anchored Government of Ireland awards is continued into Empower. While the mechanisms are for institutions to choose; the standard itself is not optional, and Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland's international peer review of institutional arrangements and its post award monitoring will provide the assurance that it is being met.

Engaging Researchers. I welcome the report's requirement that institutional applications demonstrate how researchers across all disciplines and career stages have contributed to the design of recruitment and governance arrangements from the outset, and how that involvement will continue. Given that Empower's central argument is that it empowers the academic community, this asks the programme to live up to its name, and I will expect it to be applied in full.

A coherent vision. I welcome the report's clear framing of Empower as one component of a balanced system alongside investigator-led funding, the Research Centres and RINN, the Centres for Research Training, and investments such as INSPIRE. The report’s approach is also aligned with the practice of national funders across Europe, as demonstrated by the comparative evidence annexed to it.

This process has demonstrated what can be achieved and secured when Government, Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland and the research community, engage collaboratively and inclusively in seeking to achieve genuine co-design: a materially stronger programme, and clarity about the standards to which it will be held.

The need for active consultation and engagement with stakeholders has been identified as integral for the future. Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland have made concrete commitments in this regard through its commitments which include: an Academic Advisory Council as provided for under the legislation, a published biannual programme roadmap, an Annual Research Forum, structured engagement with academics, the unions and representative bodies, and the formal review of the first Empower funding cycle in 2027.

The formal review of the first funding cycle in 2027, informed by Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland's postaward monitoring and by recruitment outcomes across disciplines and career stages, will be the point at which that delivery is tested openly, and any necessary refinements are made.

While I believe and hope that my involvement has been helpful to this process at this early steering stage, I fully respect the independent mandate of Taighde Éireann - Research Ireland and the

independence of the wider research community and trust that now all parties will move forward together collaboratively.

I am grateful to the IUA, TUA, University Presidents, Vice Presidents and Deans of Research, Academics, the RIA and Young Academy Ireland, DIAS, the trade unions, and the individual researchers and representatives of the open letter, whose challenge has sharpened this programme - for the time, candour and expertise brought to this process. I think we are very lucky as a country to have at the heart of research policy development and implementation people of such expertise and dedication.

Working together in partnership, I am confident that Empower will build on the strengths of the Government of Ireland programme - its commitment to excellence, to every discipline and to the individual scholar - while adding new institutional capability that will serve Ireland's researchers and Ireland's future. I believe that this has been a constructive process and I look forward to seeing the exciting research which it will enable.