Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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1014. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the breakdown of all research funding that has been made available for research on Covid-19 in tabular form; the amount that has been allocated; the research that has been initiated; the amount of funding for Covid-19 research fund that was mobilised from existing research funding; the amount that was from new funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32916/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Research Council (IRC) is supporting 8 COVID-19 related research projects through its rapid response partnership with the Health Research Board (HRB). The 8 projects funded by the IRC are within the social and policy countermeasures strand, and were funded from the IRC’s existing budget. Details of these projects are attached.

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) redirected existing budgets from those programmes that could not be run due to the pandemic to fund research to address the immediate and pressing needs of society arising from the pandemic, and to develop novel solutions that have the potential to impact society. This research has been funded through two programmes. Firstly, the COVID-19 Rapid Response Call which was run in partnership with Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council. Those awards that have been funded by Science Foundation Ireland are attached.

Secondly, SFI has also made an investment of €4.8m into the immunology of COVID-19 to researchers at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute and Trinity Translational Medicine Institute at Trinity College Dublin. The research will seek to understand why some people are more susceptible to COVID-19 than others. This substantial investment which is being funded through the SFI Strategic Partnerships Programme, and is co-funded by additional investment by Allied Irish Bank (AIB) through the Trinity Foundation, brings together national and international partners to address key research questions designed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is also worth noting that the academic community also galvanised into action, making hugely valuable contributions to the national and global emergency effort.

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