IRC Annual Report 2014
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3 3(+3(+ "("#"("# ,+,0%,31,+ ,0%,31 5b7\ca\U]f`YiaH\U][\XY ]b v]f]bb ANNUAL REPORT 2014 IRISH RESEARCH COUNCIL 3 3(+3(+ "("#"("# ,+,0%,31,+ ,0%,31 5b7\ca\U]f`Yia H\U][\XY ]b v]f]bb Irish Research Council Annual Event 2014, Ms Madi Sharma, Plenary Speaker, Mr. Damien English, T.D. Prof. Orla Feely, Prof. Miguel Seabra, Chair, Science Europe, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, November 2014 contents 2 Foreword: Minister of State for Skills, Research and Innovation, Damien English, T.D. 5 Introduction 7 1. The Irish Research Council 2014 8 2. Researcher Career Progression Awards - Opportunities and New Initiatives 24 3. Partnering on Research with Enterprise, Government and Civic Society 35 4. Leading for Ireland in Europe 47 Appendix 1 51 Council Members and Executive Note: The Accounts for the Irish Research Council will be published as part of the HEA C&AG audited Accounts 2014 in Q3 2015 3 Ireland’s Research Performance 2014 Essential Science Indicator Where Irish HEIs in top 1% of world World research impact ranking (citations) higher education institutions Immunology 1 Nanoscience/Nanotechnology 2 Computer Science 4 Materials Science 7 Neuroscience & Behaviour 7 Pharmacy & Toxicology 9 Biology & Biochemistry 11 Molecular Biology & Genetics 11 Chemistry 11 Psychiatry/Psychology 15 Physics 19 Agricultural Science Clinical Medicine Economics & Business Engineering Environment/Ecology Geosciences Microbiology Plant & Animal Science Social Sciences General Source : Thomson Reuters InCites2, 2003-2013 Arts and Humanities are not included in the Essential Science Indicators. The QS World University Rankings 2013/14 and other ranking processes show strong evidence that these areas contribute significantly and positively to Irish higher education institution rankings. Ireland is: Ranked 18th in terms of Ranked 3rd in EU Human Capital and Research member states (Global Innovation Index 2014) performance in Human Resources (IU Scoreboard 2014 4 FOReWoRD One of the Irish Research Council’s principal mandates is to fund excellent research across all disciplines and, in doing so, to enhance Ireland’s international reputation as a centre for research and learning. In fulfilling this aim, 2014 has been a very successful year: a total of 1,146 Postgraduate Scholars and 272 Postdoctoral Fellows were funded. The prestige of this funding is significant as the Irish Research Council schemes are highly competitive. More detailed information about these and other awards made in 2014 are being presented within this Annual Report. An additional aim of the Council is to enrich the available pool of knowledge and expertise in order to address Ireland’s current and future challenges, particularly through collaboration and knowledge exchange. To this end, a variety of partnerships have been formed by the Council with government departments and agencies, enterprise and civic society. Specifically, in relation to enterprise, it is noteworthy that 25% of all Postgraduate Scholar awards made in 2014 were co-funded by an Enterprise or Employment Partner. To date, approximately 300 private-sector and other employers have partnered with the Irish Research Council. Of these, taking the Employment Based Postgraduate Programme as an example, SMEs account for more than 70% of Employment Partners. In building these funding programmes, the Irish Research Council offers a range of opportunities and supports diverse career paths for researchers. In seeking to address ongoing challenges faced by Ireland, the Irish Research Council has funded a number of large research projects that have a societal focus. Several of these projects are interdisciplinary and will form the building blocks of future Horizon 2020 proposals from Ireland. Finally, solid foundations were laid in 2014 for future achievements: preparation of Creating Ireland , a new publication on the public value of funding research in the humanities and social sciences; the formation of new civic-society collaboration with The Wheel; and the development of a new Research for Policy and Society funding scheme. I congratulate the Irish Research Council on its achievements in 2014 and look forward to reading more about these and other milestones in this and future Council reports. Mr. Damien English, T.D. Minister of State for Skills, Research and Innovation 5 The mission of the Irish Research Council is to support excellent research and recognise creative individuals with innovative ideas, thus enabling a vibrant research community which enriches Irish research, the economy and society The mandate of the Council, as set out in 2012, is aligned with delivering on this mission: • To fund excellent research within, and between, all disciplines, and in doing so to enhance Ireland’s international reputation as a centre for research and learning. • To support the education and skills development of excellent individual early-stage researchers and cultivate independent researchers and thinkers, whilst offering a range of opportunities which support diverse career paths. • To enrich the pool of knowledge and expertise available for addressing Ireland’s current and future challenges, whether societal, cultural or economic, through collaboration and knowledge exchange with government departments and agencies, enterprise and civic society. • To provide policy advice on postgraduate education and on more general research matters to the HEA and other national and international bodies . 6 introduction 2014 marked the second full year of operation for the Irish Research Council. We have continued to build on the work and success of the former Councils, IRCSET and IRCHSS, whilst also consolidating and developing our mission. In the course of 2014, the Council set out its vision for a healthy research ecosystem in Ireland, one which provides a diversity of supports and opportunities and which enables the country to reap the full value and benefits of research. This balanced ecosystem would address the breadth of economic and societal needs and develop the knowledge, understanding and insights required by citizens, employers and government. The Council, in line with its mandate, plays a distinctive role in the research ecosystem. We support the best talent and provide opportunities for excellent researchers with original ideas, regardless of the discipline or research topic. Through our approach, we cultivate individual thinkers to question, to discover and to contribute to the development of the skills, competencies and expertise required for the future. We empower creative and innovative people who can translate new ideas and knowledge into benefits for the economy and for society, both in Ireland and globally. We enable researchers to connect with employers and we have a strong ethos of partnering with other government entities and with civic society to deliver benefits from research to all. And to enable this, in addition to our core funding from the government, we are continuing to leverage funding from non-Exchequer sources nationally and at EU level. Significant progress was made in 2014, progress which will form the bedrock for the work programme in 2015. This progress is summarised in the following pages and we would like to thank you for taking the time to peruse this report. If you require any more information, please do not hesitate to contact us or visit our website at www.research.ie. Professor Orla Feely (Chair) and Dr. Eucharia Meehan (Director) 7 9 Individuals, 4 of our Irish SUCcESSFUL PARTICIPANTS, research council alumni and 5 from AHSS & Stem, SUPPORTED of our Government of Ireland BY THE IUA AND IRISH RESEARCH Academic Supervisors Secured 28 COUNCIL JOINTLY OPERATED prestigious European Research Marie Skłodowska-Curie Council Awards in 2014. OFFICE = €14m Funding Secured funded 1418 researchers 1146 principal investigator-led 30 projects WEB RESEARCH Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do IRieiusmods tempor incididhunt ut labore et d olore magnaR aliqua. esearch Council overview 2014 €31.4 m €3.3m Exchequer budget leveraged funding from + other sources 8 EU Commission reported the Irish Research Council in the top 5 most successful Co-fund participating organisations in FP7. postgraduate postdoctoral research students 272 fellows Irish research council/ MSC 45 co-fund Projects IRish Research Council overview 2014 partnering with 13 Government Departments/Agencies 3private-se0ctor & other 0employers have partnered with & co-funded with the Irish Research council AHSS – Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths RPO – Research Performing Organisation HEI – Higher Education Institution GOI – Government of Ireland MSC - Marie Skłodowska-Curie SME – Small Medium Enterprise MNC - Multi National Company 9 NEW AWARDS 2014 €16.8 M male female Value of awards 2Governm1ent Of Ir8 eland Scholar AWARDS 116 102 €5.5 M male female 6Governm9 ent Of Ireland Value of awards 37 32 POSTDOCTORAL Fellow AWARDS male Eu stem €4.5 M 26 43 35 48 Value of awards female non-eu Ahss EMPLOYMENT BASED POSTGRADUATE SCHEME 22 5 13 male Eu stem €5.7 M 41 46 49 54 Value of awards female non-eu Ahss ENTERPRISE Partnership POSTGRADUATE & POSTDOCTORAL AWARDS 13 8 5 €8 M male female Eu Value of awards e3levate i0 rish research council/msc co-fund awards 18 12 25 €1.2 M male female Ahss Value of awards 11 1researc1 h project awards 4 7 10 Eu non-eu stem 106 196 22 112 Ahss Eu non-eu stem 33 59 10 36 Ahss employment 33 7 6 partners SME s MNC s Other Enterprise 22 15 9 partners SME s MNC s Other of stem scholar awards co-funded non-eu stem Ahss 5 16 14 40% with Enterprise/employer partner of All scholar awards co-funded 25% with employer partner 11 A year in the life of the Irish Research Council January February MARCH Sponsored by the Irish Research The Irish Research Council organized Research Data Alliance Third Plenary Meeting: Council, ‘New Horizons in the a Horizon 2020 interdisciplinary The Data Sharing Community: Playing your Part. Humanities’ was jointly hosted by the workshop, ‘Creative Connections’ on This event was sponsored by the Irish Research Irish Humanities Alliance and Royal the societal challenges of Health & Council.