2026-07-02

98. Deputy Eoghan Kenny asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for an update on his discussions with the European Research Council in relation to the multi-annual funding framework for science; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50208/26]

Will the Minister give an update on his discussions with the European Research Council, ERC, in relation to the multi-annual funding framework for science? Ireland has built an international reputation for excellence in scientific research. Our universities and research institutions consistently compete successfully for European funding and Irish researchers have made significant contributions in areas ranging from health and pharmaceuticals to climate science, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.

I thank the Deputy for his interest in this area. It is a critical area. The Deputy asked about the ERC and I think he may also want me to talk about the Horizon Europe programme.

Yes.

They are two separate but complementary activities so I will speak to both in my answer. The European Research Council is one of the key instruments in the EU research and innovation framework programme, Horizon Europe. It was established in 2007 and is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research, funding researchers of any nationality and age. Ahead of the Irish Presidency, just last week, on my invitation the ERC's scientific council came to Dublin. They are an independent group of top researchers who guide the ERC programme. They visited Dublin to hold their plenary meeting and stakeholder engagements. I addressed the council and spoke on the re-election of the president of the European Research Council. I emphasised the importance of supporting bottom-up and curiosity-driven fundamental research, and excellence in research. The Taoiseach also attended and spoke at the same event, which I hope speaks to the high-level Government commitment to supporting this area of excellence and research across all disciplines. The Horizon Europe programme funds the European Research Council and is the EU's key funding programme for research and innovation. The current programme runs until 2027. In July of last year, the Commission published its proposal for the next Horizon Europe programme as part of the EU budget package for the period 2028 to 2034. Following intensive negotiations the Council, made up of the 27 member states including us, agreed its position on the next Horizon Europe programme just last week in the last week of the Cypriot Presidency. That is a very significant milestone and I congratulate our colleagues in Cyprus on leading out in that agreement. It now falls to me to chair the European Research Council over the next six months during our Presidency. We will now enter what are called trilogue negotiations. Having got the agreement in the Cypriot Presidency, the Irish Presidency will now engage with the Parliament to bring that forward. Chairing it is an honest broker role, so it would not be appropriate for me to get into Ireland's specific interests, although obviously we have made those known in the past. We will now move to chair the debate in an honest broker fashion.

I thank the Minister. The EU Presidency obviously gives us a greater opportunity to work with our European counterparts and, as the Minister is the honest broker chairing that, it is essential that we gain significant experience from the amount that we can invest in scientific research. It would probably be remiss of me not to mention University College Cork in my county, which does a significant amount of scientific research. I am very proud as a Cork man that we do such fantastic scientific research. One of the biggest issues raised repeatedly by researchers is the need for greater certainty around long-term funding. Scientific research cannot be planned on a year-to-year basis. Major projects often take many years to develop, requiring sustained investment, international collaboration, and the ability to recruit and retain highly skilled researchers. This is not simply about supporting academia. Research and innovation underpin Ireland's future economic success. It is good that the Minister referenced the Horizon Europe programme.

I could not agree more. It is something that I have put front and centre in my Ministry since I took up this office. Fundamental research is absolutely key to driving Ireland as a knowledge economy, as a society and civilisationally more broadly. It is the key to future knowledge creation, economic growth and societal resilience. It is why I created, for example, the INSPIRE research infrastructure programme, with a €750 million commitment over the term of the Government to roll out research, equipment and facilities right across every higher education authority in Ireland. In terms of Horizon Europe and Ireland's Presidency, the Deputy rightly said that it is not just about academics. Of course, they are fundamental to it but it is also about wider society and the wider economy. I have adopted an Horizon Europe action plan for the remaining two years of the current programme. From an Irish perspective, one thing we are seeking to do is ensure that SMEs take full opportunity of the participations available to them to draw down. We have drawn down €1 billion in funding from that programme to date just in the current term but there are opportunities to draw down a couple of hundred million more within the current programme even before we get to the new one. An action plan in respect of Horizon has been published. We partnered with Enterprise Ireland on that. I encourage SMEs that are not already involved to get involved now and make sure they draw down whatever is available for their research activities.

On the broader aspect to this, we invest significantly in educating talented scientists. We must ensure that, having provided funding to educate these talented scientists, we do not put them in the position where they feel they must leave Ireland because they cannot see a stable research career here. I do not have statistics on that but if we are going to engage with and fund young people to become fantastic scientists, we must ensure we provide the funding to make sure they can have a stable research career here, if they wish to have one and if it is possible. Has the Department examined ways to complement the European funding model that we have alongside more predictable national investment? I do not expect him to go into that in detail. There is a budgetary process involved there. There has been significant investment in scientific research but we have to ensure that we match European funding with national investment across the country.

As well as matching European funding, we have surpassed it because while we drew down €1 billion in Horizon Europe funding in the current term, I have committed over €2.45 billion for research funding from State funds, so we are doing far more. I mentioned the INSPIRE research infrastructure programme, which is a €750 million commitment to research infrastructure. I launched seven new Rinn centres, which are the Research Ireland centres, just last week. That was a €460 million investment, and those centres include things like advanced computing technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and big data AI. They also include things like semiconductors, biotechnology, material sciences and health informatics. There are programmes there across societal resilience and economic growth as well as the creation and pursuit of knowledge, which are fundamental goals. Those are the seven latest centres and they complement the existing centres. Overall, over 50% of the Department's national development plan, NDP, allocation has been allocated to supporting research and innovation.

Before we move to the next question, I welcome the service users from St. Aidan's Services in Gorey and in particular Nicole, Ian, Donnchadh and Caroline, who are here with Deputy Brian Brennan. They are all very welcome.