Dr. Lisa Keating:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the opportunity to participate in the pre-legislative scrutiny of the research Bill 2023. The IUA member universities that I represent here today account for approximately 85% of publicly funded research in Ireland and have competitively secured over 90% of the Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, and Irish Research Council’s research grants, and so are significant stakeholders in the development of this Bill. In the interests of time, I will confine my remarks to a number of key points but I am happy to provide further details, should the committee require.

The IUA welcomes the Bill, which provides a comprehensive approach to the legislation on the public research and innovation system. The strategic intent of the Bill, built on the aspirations of Impact 2030 to broaden research funding in Ireland to enable it to address Ireland’s societal, economic and environmental challenges, is very positive. However, the new legislation, while welcome, must be accompanied by the required investment to achieve these national ambitions. The Government reports, the higher education research and development, HERD, survey and the research and development budget show Ireland languishing at the bottom of European tables. It is essential that, side by side with this Bill, the Government increases its spending on research if it is to realise its target of being an innovation leader in Europe.

The types of research that an agency funds define its role in the ecosystem and define the agency itself. The clear intent of the Bill, as per head 8(a), is to promote and support excellence in research and innovation within and across all disciplines, spanning fundamental and applied research, which is exactly what this country needs. However, inconsistent language throughout the Bill and a lack of clear definitions cause confusion. For example, while “applied research” is defined in head 3, “fundamental research” is not. This renders the range of the objects, and the remit of the agency itself, ambiguous. In head 8(f), the use of the term “oriented basic research”, again not defined, has the potential to narrow the range of head 8(a). Research excellence, cited five times in the Bill, is not defined but is the major criterion on which funding decisions will be made. We ask the committee to recommend that clear definitions and consistent language are inserted in the final Bill in order that the new agency has the capacity to deliver on its core objectives. I cannot overstate the importance of the clarification of those definitions.

The provisions in the Bill that outline the governance structures set a good framework for the agency but it is essential that there is sufficient diversity in the governance model to be fully reflective of Ireland’s research ecosystem and to include a broad spectrum of individuals with expertise reflecting the national and international research and innovation systems. We propose that a competency-based approach is used, in line with best governance practice, to ensure that the agency has the capacity to fund research excellence across all disciplines and career stages, and for that research to “make as big a difference as possible to as many people as possible”, as recently stated by the Minister, Deputy Harris.

The Bill explicitly provides for enterprise interests to be included on the board. We welcome this but it does not sufficiently address the broader societal and environmental scope of the agency. We suggest that the committee recommends that other research end-users are also represented on the board to ensure that the wider objectives of the Bill are fully reflected in the governance structure.

Head 29 provides for the preparation of the agency’s annual plan. We suggest that the committee recommends that the Department reconsiders the appropriateness of subsection (6), which confers significant powers on the Minister in relation to the annual plan. While the explanatory note in head 11 states it is not the intention of the Minister to have the power to direct the agency in respect of specific awards, the importance of keeping research funding decisions independent of political influence was called out clearly by the current Tánaiste in a speech to the IUA’s Future of Ireland series when he said he is absolutely opposed to the current “political attempt” to bring Ministers and Government Departments “back into the decision-making structures for research awards”.

While it is entirely appropriate for the Minister to set policy and sign off on the strategic plan, we urge the committee to recommend that the Minister would not have a veto over the annual plan of the agency or become involved in the peer review process.

Our universities are at the heart of regional development across the country. They are pivotal to the establishment and success of our knowledge economy and are centres of excellence for a whole range of growth clusters. It is essential that this bill enables the new research funding agency to continue to underpin the capacity of all higher education institutes to maintain their role as regional powerhouses of economic and societal development.

In conclusion, our universities are key stakeholders for the new agency, as the performers of the research it will fund. A strong partnership approach between the agency and universities, as vital stakeholders to drive research and innovation, will be critical to the success of the new agency and to the Government’s ambition to make Ireland an island of innovation and talent based on a world-class research system.