OPINION: Ireland should strive for research excellence across all disciplines and face societal challenges, writes CONOR O’CARROLL
We have come through a period of unprecedented growth in research activity in Ireland. New funding agencies Science Foundation Ireland and the two research councils emerged between 1998 and 2006. The Higher Education Authority’s Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) brought about closer research collaboration across the higher education sector and supported the modernisation of our research infrastructure.
National policy was closely allied to the European target of an investment in research of 3 per cent of GDP. This was encapsulated in the 2004 document Building Ireland’s Knowledge Economy – the Irish Action Plan for Promoting Investment in RD to 2010. It presented a vision that by 2010 Ireland would be internationally renowned for the excellence of its research and be at the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress, within an innovation-driven culture. Rest