Dr. Lisa Keating:

That is key. I do not think people appreciate it. PhD and postdoctoral students are the people doing the research. There are 10,000 PhD and 4,000 postdoctoral researchers, making 14,000 people. Obviously, researchers and permanent academic staff in the universities are providing guidance and leadership, but the day-to-day work is being carried out by PhD and postdoctoral students.

Attracting, retaining and developing that talent is key. The difficulty goes back to the agency specifically. If I am a young researcher, I want to know what my path is and how I can build a career. How can I do that if I stay in academia? The difficulty with funding for the last decade or more is that it is not clear. If I am at this stage, how do I get to the next stage? Not every PhD nor post-doctoral researcher will go into academia. They have to be developed to be able to go into other roles throughout different sectors, which is key. They also need to be able to develop and see, if they are to go down the academic route, that there is an opportunity, because we want those brightest minds to stay in the country, whether in academia or outside it, to be able to support the new generation coming.

One specific difficulty with funding streams is the lack of continuity. It seems to be about whatever is the flavour of the moment and of interest now to Government, which funds agencies for a programme that does that specific thing. There needs to be something about consistency and steadiness in order that individuals can plan where they are going and how they are going to get there. That will be in the operationalisation of the new agency, which will be key to being able to provide that opportunity to researchers as they start out on their careers. I would go for consistency and continuity, not one thing in one year and another the next year.