Over the past two decades, Ireland has significantly transformed its research funding landscape, evolving from a modest participant in European research initiatives to a global player with a robust, innovation-driven ecosystem.
The launch of Impact 2030 in 2022 marked a pivotal moment, emphasizing research’s role in addressing societal challenges and fostering economic growth. This strategy focused on enhancing research impact, promoting talent development, and strengthening international collaborations.
However, Ireland is falling behind in innovation performance. Between 2016 and 2023, Ireland’s innovation growth lagged at just 2.3%, well below the EU average of 8.5%, putting the Impact 2030 goal of becoming a European Innovation Leader at serious risk.
The Programme for Government 2025 outlines the need for increased and sustained research investment. In April 2025 IUA made a submission to Government for a €600m fund over 5 years to transform Ireland’s research infrastructure, drive innovation, and address critical societal challenges.
The Research Infrastructure and Talent Development Fund that IUA proposes is critical for restoring Ireland’s competitiveness in research and innovation, particularly against key European and global competitors. This investment programme will help to realise the government ambition to make Ireland “an innovation leader”.
Positive Developments:
In August 2024, the Irish government established Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland, merging the Irish Research Council (IRC) and Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) into a single national body. This consolidation aims to streamline funding processes and enhance coordination across research disciplines.
Irish entities have secured over €910 million from Horizon Europe since 2021, surpassing the national target of 1.6% of the program’s total budget. This success reflects Ireland’s growing influence in EU-funded research and its capacity to address global challenges through collaborative projects.
How Research Funding is Measured:
The internationally recognised indicator for benchmarking State-funded performance of R&D is the ‘Government Budget Allocations for R&D’ metric (GBARD). Total Government expenditure on R&D is charted and benchmarked against international comparators.