John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Lawless for his company in the visit to the European Space Agency, where a number of contracts were signed for Irish companies. The Deputy was part of the discussions and I am glad he was there.

Science Foundation Ireland, SFI, funds a comprehensive suite of oriented basic and applied research funding programmes to deliver excellent research with impact in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths, STEM. The annual budget for 2017 amounts to €162.5 million. Science Foundation Ireland's legal remit was extended in 2013 to allow it to fund applied research in line with the Government’s policy of research prioritisation, which was adopted in 2012. This broad remit enables Science Foundation Ireland to support an important range of work from early stage investigations, novel discoveries through to pre-commercial activities. The adoption of research priority areas has not affected the level of funding by Science Foundation Ireland as over 80% of funding is currently committed to oriented basic research projects.

My Department and its agencies are important funders of research, with spending on research and development of €394 million in 2016. I am conscious of the time allowed to answer the question and I will speak later about the three specific areas, which are oriented, applied and frontier research. Frontier research is beyond the frontiers of what is called "current understanding". The criteria for funding frontier research is typically excellence alone, with no requirement for alignment with particular themes or priorities. The Irish Research Council, IRC, makes competitive awards on the basis of excellence only. Its budget for 2017 is €34.15 million, including €2.5 million for new frontier research laureate awards.

The original remit of Science Foundation Ireland in 2003 was to promote, develop and assist oriented and basic research. That remit was changed in 2012 to include applied research and research in frontier science, as mentioned by the Deputy. I agree we need to look further on further funding for frontier research.

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