The Science Research Council has offered research grants worth €9.75 million to 171 successful university graduate applicants. The awards are to be made under the council's "Embark Initiative", a new funding programme aimed at keeping the Republic's most promising science graduates at home.
Many of the State's science graduates tended to pursue studies abroad because of the low level of grant support, which used to stand at just €2,500 per graduate per year. These new awards are worth €19,050 per year for a maximum of three years, said the programme's director, Mr Martin Hynes. "It makes a viable existence possible for people. They respond to a real career possibility."
The grants were targeted at undergraduates who were about to decide on their future in the sciences. The council wanted to make it possible for them to remain with science and gain higher qualifications, to the benefit of the State, he added.
In addition to the 171 awards, the council is offering awards to 35 experienced researchers. Funding will be provided for three years for doctorate-level research and for one year for masters-level research, the council indicated.
Awards were granted on merit only, and no quotas applied, the council said. Applications were assessed by an independent panel chaired by Prof Lyn Williams, recently retired professor of chemistry at Durham University.
Almost half - 47 per cent - of the successful candidates were female, although women did not make up half the total applicants. Mr Hynes explained: "They were disproportionately successful."
The council's chairman Prof Tom Mitchell, said: "Providing funding directly to full-time researchers at the early stages of their careers ensures that research is a viable and beneficial career and that ideas, potential and creativity, crucial to Ireland's future success, are not lost to other international learning centres."