Changes afoot at the Irish Research Council

The Irish Research Council is facing considerable change given the departure at the end of this month of its chairwoman, Prof Orla Feely. Much greater change may be on the way, however.

Last Monday the deadline fell for submissions on the development of a new national strategy for science, technology and innovation. This is due to be delivered before the end of June and will set the agenda for research at least through to 2020.

These submissions will be considered by the Interdepartmental Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, made up of representatives of 10 Government departments along with the Higher Education Authority and the chief scientific adviser, Prof Mark Ferguson.

Prof Feely has interesting insights after almost three years with the council which could be of value to the committee and its endeavours. She has no doubt that Ireland could be a world leader in research and discovery, but there are also problems emerging within the research ecosystem, she believes.

Prof Feely is vice-president for research, innovation and impact at University College Dublin. She is also a research engineer involved in discovery science.

Today’s council is a merger of the formerly separate science council and humanities and social sciences council. “The merger in my opinion has been a great success. It worked efficiently and effectively,” she says, and without barriers between the disciplines. Its working budget is about €33.5 million a year and it gets quite a bit for this money.

It supported the work of more than 1,400 researchers and made 4,000 awards, about 3,000 of them in support of PhDs and Masters students.

“This is our big achievement, excellent people working in the economy and society, it is a huge achievement,” she says.

The council also saw many students it supported going into industry on the science side and into more than 40 NGOs and voluntary groups for the social scientists, she says.

The council had done well “despite the extraordinarily tough times”, she says. She acknowledged the Government had recognised the connection between having a strong research base and Ireland’s economic recovery.

Industrial partners

Considerable funding has also flowed over the past three years into the new

Science Foundation Ireland

research centres which linked

higher education

researchers with industrial partners, she says. These had allowed Ireland “a chance to scale our effort to an international level”.

The council had “established a funding vehicle that others can work with, SMEs and researchers. It is easier for SMEs to get involved and helps them get ready for participation in larger consortia with bigger responsibilities.”

Much of this aspect of the council's remit fits perfectly into the Government's current strategy to promote jobs and company formation from research, but the council also seeks to support research for knowledge alone.

“It is so important we work with all research areas. Where there is excellence we can respond,” she says. “The council is somewhat unique in terms of its support for blue skies research. We are there as a national source of funding.”

The council’s support for basic research should not be underestimated. Some outside the council liken it to providing life support for research disciplines that see little funding because they don’t have an obvious economic payback.

Current Government policy is dominated by this pragmatic approach, but it carries with it inherent risks, Prof Feely believes.

We need to “future proof” the system. “If we ignore important research areas we may be losing opportunities needed for the future.” Then there is the synergy between the research system and higher education. “The health of research is inextricably linked to the health of the higher education system,” she says.

Abstract maths may not seem an immediate priority but we need to maintain a strong maths presence within higher education, she argues.

“If there is no maths research in Ireland we lose staff, lose students and this inevitably affects the quality of the graduates and their appeal to knowledge industries. Education and research are a complex and intertwining system.”

Real impact

The council supports these research fields but Prof Feely believes funding should also come from central government in order to have a real impact.

“Only a few per cent of the spend on research in these areas could help future proofing and horizon scanning.”

It is dangerous to cut important research areas out of the funding stream. “You can’t turn things around quickly, it takes time to rebuild competencies that have been allowed to decline,” she says.

"This is not a rejection of prioritisation at all. But not funding areas can leave a higher education institution off balance, you lose staff. If you can get that small amount of extra money then it allows a researcher to bring in two or three students and there is more activity."

She also expresses concerns about the decline in money going into the buildings and labs needed to support high-quality research.

The fact that the interdepartmental group is considering a future strategy shows that research is important to the Government, she adds. And with the right support Ireland can do great things.

“With a bit of wind in our sails we can do so many exceptional things and that will have the world sitting up and paying attention.”

Impact ‘Research needs support

“All excellent research has impact,” says the outgoing chair of the Irish Research Council. It doesn’t matter whether it is in the pure sciences or social sciences or if it is blue skies or close to market.

Prof Orla Feely says all excellent research needs to be supported in order to have a balanced research ecosystem.

It has to be recognised, however, that quality research delivers different kinds of impacts and not all of them are directly economic.

Excellent research helps to train world-class researchers, and research activity enriches the higher education system, she says. Being able to have an impact is also of value as it helps build a reputation internationally.

“We need to think about how to apply leverage to gain from this and deliver impact, but we also need to have trained individuals who will be responsible for discoveries that might follow,” she says. “We need to be originators and not just facilitators.”

The Irish Research Council is well placed to help deliver on this, given its support for young researchers.

“People are the most important output from what we do,” Prof Feely says.