Research Funding
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-11
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

One of the first things I changed was the equipment and infrastructure available to them. Just last month, I launched the new Inspire programme. This is a €750 million capital envelope to support research infrastructure and equipment across our higher education institutions. That was a very clear ask of me by the research community and it had long been sought. Coming into the role, it was something I was determined to address as soon as possible, and I was able to secure funding through the national development plan to do that. That is now live. That call is starting and will be opening in the new year. It has been welcomed almost universally across the research sector.
In terms of the PhD stipends, the statistics the Deputy mentioned are fair. I think 3,000 of the 10,000 students are supported by Research Ireland, 1,000 by other public funders, 2,000 by institutional scholarships from the universities directly, and then 4,000 are funded through the private sector or the employer. There are 4,000 supported by the private sector and 3,000 by Research Ireland and, for the 1,000 supported by other public funders, it is within the discretion of those public funders to choose how to use their funds.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-11/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-11