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.
GBARD includes Government funding for R&D programmes in the higher education sector administered by the Department of Education and Skills, the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and others.
This is in addition to Government funding for business sector R&D (through EI, IDA, etc.) and Government funding for R&D performed in the public sector (e.g. Teagasc, the Marine Institute, etc). GBARD also includes Government contributions to international R&D programmes or organisations.
Main Government Departments/Agencies with Spending on R&D, 2017-2018
| Department/Agency | 2017 (€000's) | % of Total | 2018 est (€000's) | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Science Foundation Ireland | 173,304 | 23.4% | 172,250 | 22.9% |
| Higher Education Authority | 165,983 | 22.4% | 155,531 | 20.7% |
| Enterprise Ireland | 99,225 | 13.4% | 95,778 | 12.7% |
| Teagasc | 50,856 | 6.9% | 57,439 | 7.6% |
| IDA Ireland | 52,830 | 7.1% | 55,000 | 7.3% |
| Health Research Board | 43,659 | 5.9% | 48,537 | 6.5% |
| Irish Research Council | 34,150 | 4.6% | 34,050 | 4.5% |
| Dept of Business, Enterprise and Innovation | 27,208 | 3.7% | 23,946 | 3.2% |
| Dept of Agriculture, Food and the Marine | 25,458 | 3.4% | 24,629 | 3.3% |
| Bord Iascaigh Mhara | 10,022 | 1.4% | 15,365 | 2.0% |
| Marine Institute | 8,769 | 1.2% | 8,769 | 1.2% |
| Economic and Social Research Institute | 6,826 | 0.9% | 7,850 | 1.0% |
| Environmental Protection Agency | 7,400 | 1.0% | 11,352 | 1.5% |
| Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland | 6,350 | 0.9% | 7,232 | 1.0% |
| Others | 27,306 | 3.7% | 33,935 | 4.5% |
| Total | 739,347 | 100.0% | 751,663 | 100.0% |