Over the past decade we have witnessed a dramatic transformation of the research landscape in Ireland. In 1997 the exact total of dedicated research funding allocated to the Department of Education was zero. Not only has the level of funding changed, it is a great example of clear, measurable progress emerging as an output. Last year, a comprehensive international study of higher education research performance ranked Ireland eighth on the impact of our research publications and also noted that the volume of research articles and reviews from Irish universities and colleges published in recognised international journals more than doubled in the past decade. On volume, Ireland shows an impressive increase of 33% in terms of research output for the five years 2002-07, second only to China in terms of the increase.

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