Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

119. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to encourage qualitative research methodology in Irish research given a shift towards quantitative methods in recent years and the importance of qualitative research in developing rich and deep understandings of human behaviour. [43215/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that research and innovation will play an essential role in Ireland’s recovery from the current crisis and will assist us in being more prepared for the impacts of other challenges we are facing in the future.

The creation of a single department encompassing further and higher education, research, innovation and science demonstrates the recognition of the centrality of Research and Innovation to the Irish economy and society.

With this new Department we now have a great opportunity to bring further cohesion and investment to research and innovation strategy and funding and to ensure a balanced portfolio of excellent research across the full continuum, embracing all disciplines and, increasingly important, at the interface between disciplines.

Having three key research funding organisations, representing over 50% of national public research funding, brought together under one roof will help to achieve this balance. I am delighted that Science Foundation Ireland, which has traditionally focused on the STEM areas, the Irish Research Council, which funds researchers at all stages across all disciplines and the Higher Education Authority, which administers the core grant to higher education institutes will be working more closely together under the auspices of my new department.

It is important that research is carried out using the most relevant methodologies to ensure the research question or problem is addressed. Many international organisations and national governments have begun to embrace Mission-Oriented Investment programmes or Grand Challenges to channel multi-annual funding and a multi-disciplinary approach to enable research and innovation address significant societal challenges. We see examples of the missions that are proposed under the next EU Framework Programme, Horizon Europe.

As signalled in the Programme for Government, adopting a mission or grand challenge approach to solving societal challenges here in Ireland will not only ensure that we optimise our research and innovation capabilities to meet current and future challenges but through this approach we will further develop the skills of our talented researchers and academics to understand how the discoveries of the future can benefit us all.