Ireland has launched a five-year strategy to boost research and innovation. It sets out how the newly minted funder Research Ireland can shape the country’s research landscape, not just fund it.
The new strategy sits on three pillars for research: talent, economy and society. The plan calls for 3800 PhDs and 2000 postdoctoral fellows over five years, as well as support for 14 national research centres in economically significant areas.
A repeat theme is that Research Ireland would be ‘more than a funder’ and deliver economic benefits. The document emphasises international collaboration and commercialisation of research through university spin-outs, targeting the creation of 50 new businesses. Earlier this year, Ireland announced plans to invest a landmark €4.55 billion (£3.94 billion) over five years in its universities and research and innovation sector. This followed government investment of €2.9 billion in the sector between 2021 and 2025.
Research Ireland was created by combining Science Foundation Ireland with the Irish Research Council, an integration of funding agencies that will be completed by the end of 2026. Around 3000 PhD positions are supported at any one time in Ireland by the two agencies.
‘Ireland must now invest in infrastructure and talent at scale,’ said James Lawless, the minister for higher education and research. The strategy stresses translation and commercialisation, building research capability to scale Irish companies, embed global investment and support job creation.
There are concerns in Ireland about over reliance on foreign direct investment, especially from US pharma and tech companies. Firms with a significant presence include Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Boston Scientific, with US companies contributing around $40 billion (£30 billion) to the Irish economy and employing 245,000 in 2024.
The new strategy wants researchers and institutions to forge better links to venture capital and entrepreneurship communities, and engage with homegrown and foreign companies to improve long-term competitiveness. It commits a minimum of 25% to life sciences, 13% to social sciences and humanities and 25% to physical sciences and engineering for investigator-led grants.
‘It is encouraging to read such a comprehensive strategic document,’ says Garret A FitzGerald, an Irish researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and formerly at University College Dublin. ‘The emphasis on human capital and the need for sustainable career structures is laudable.’
The document name checks Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands as other small, advanced economies and notes where Ireland is playing catch-up. It faces a ‘significant gap’ in government investment in research and innovation, an imbalance between public and private investment and lower levels of intellectual property creation.
‘The inferred failure to keep up investment in research with other small economies is realistic,’ says FitzGerald. ‘The need to attract venture capital and to enhance actual research collaboration with industry is mentioned,’ he adds. ‘The absence of the former has been a real constraint on spin-outs from Irish science.’
The strategy notes strong investment in research in Asia, especially China, and the UK positioning of research and development at the heart of its growth strategy. It said Ireland must focus its research resources strategically to maximise impact. ‘Our investment in research and talent will enhance private-sector innovation, attract and retain [foreign direct investment] and support the development and scaling of indigenous companies in Ireland,’ it said.
‘The challenges will be releasing the fiscal resources to achieve depth and scale, fostering an entrepreneurial culture and attraction of venture capital and recruiting and retaining the workforce,’ FitzGerald says.
Last month, Lawless launched an action plan to boost the participation of Irish small and medium enterprises in Europe’s €95.5 billion Horizon Europe framework programme, as well as the next plan that runs from 2028 to 2034. This would also support institutions and first-time applicants to EU-funded projects and encourage more coordination roles by Irish participants.
No comments yet