Written answers

Thursday, 24 June 2021

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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419. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide additional detail on the majority of the funding allocated under health services in relation to the in-house research and development expenditure of the Health Research Board outlined in the most recent research and development budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26339/21]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HRB is a statutory agency under the aegis of my Department and plays a critical role within Ireland’s research and innovation system as it sits at the interface between the higher education system and the research system. The HRB invests in data, research and evidence to deliver on the complementary objectives of improving people’s health, delivering significant transformation in health policy and practice and supporting economic and social development. The focus of HRB investment is on patient oriented and clinical research, population health sciences, and health services research.

Health research is key to achieving the objectives of the health system. It delivers knowledge, insights and evidence to address key challenges in our society. It can be used to improve the quality and efficiency of our health services and enhance the quality of life of people throughout our society. Research enables us to develop more effective preventative strategies, better health care practices and treatments, improved models of care and more efficient ways to use human, infrastructural and financial resources.

The details provided below relate to HRB returns to DBEI (Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation) in respect of HRB expenditure (revenue and capital) for the above activities in 2019 and 2020, in line with the HRB Strategy 2016-2020. The breakdown below includes investment categorised in the report as “health services” and “other”. The “health services” figure relates to support for R&D which takes places in Irish higher education institutions, hospitals and other research performing organisations in Ireland. The smaller “other” figure relates to expenditure towards a number of EU Joint programmes. The expenditure is broken down based on the focus and enabler areas set out in the HRB Strategy (2016-2020).

Note: The total figure for 2020 below is larger than that estimated at time of submission to DBEI (by approx. €1.35M) as this reflects actual expenditure at end 2020 and includes additional investment by the HRB in support of the Government’s response to COVID-19. The Covid-19 pandemic presented a unique set of challenges to our health system, society, and economy, and required a multifaceted and agile response and the capacity to make well informed decisions in real time. The HRB responded by redirecting available funding to COVID-19 priorities and by taking on a number of additional tasks. Examples include:

- the provision of evidence reviews to inform public policy responses nationally and globally;

- funding of research projects into medical, social and policy countermeasures, health service readiness, and patient safety projects, aligned with the WHO R&D Roadmap;

- enabling Ireland’s participation in multinational clinical trials to evaluate potential treatments such as the WHO SOLIDARITY Trial;

- working with the Department and CSO to facilitate access to the CSO Covid-19 data hub for research purposes; and

- establishing a national Covid-19 research ethics committee on behalf of the Minister to expedite ethics reviews of Covid-19-related research projects.

The HRB continues to support the national and global response to COVID-19 and further details of the HRB current and planned activities can be found in the HRB Strategy (2021-2025), Health research - making an impact, which I launched earlier this (www.hrb.ie/strategy-2025).

Focus Area 1: Address major health challenges (Innovative, investigator-led and internationally competitive research to address major health challenges in society

2019 2020
Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI) contribution - 297,482
Medical Research Charities Group/HRB Joint funding scheme 1,006,393 354,263
HRB Health Research Awards 2,463,722 472,254
Investigator Led Projects 4,876,649 2,055,843
SFI-HRB-Wellcome Research Partnership 1,615,569 1,737,954
US Ireland Research & Development Partnership 678,714 955,412
HRB/Wellcome Trust- Irish Clinical Academic Training Programme 250,000 400,000
HRB-IRC GenderNet Plus 2018 Award 168,666 100,000
Irish Research Nurses Network 34,523 48,966
National Children’s Hospital Foundation awards 326,628 65,861
Patrick Quinn awards for Parkinson's Research 128,021 118,020
European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJPRD) - 131,103
EU Joint Programming Initiative - Anti Microbial Resistance (AMR) 366,212 123,171
EU Joint Programming Initiative - Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (HDHL) 220,000 155,000
EU Joint Programming Initiative – Neuro-degenerative Diseases (JPND) 463,980 434,741

Focus Area 2: Support healthcare interventions (The design, conduct and evaluation of healthcare intervention studies to improve health outcomes and health service delivery)

2019 2020
Definitive Intervention and Feasibility Awards 4,878,186 2,843,484
European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) 189,683 189,683
HRB Trials Methodology Research Network (TMRN) 72,685 336,975
Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG) 3,184,913 3,561,620
WHO-SOLIDARITY Trial (Covid-19 treatments) - 1,400,000
Clinical Research Co-ordination Ireland (CRCI) 159,543 1,081,780
Clinical Trials Research Networks 1,542,342 665,581

Focus Area 3: Address the research needs of the Irish health and social care system (Partnership-driven research, information and evidence that meet the needs of the Irish health and social care system)

2019 2020
All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care Structured Research Network 70,000 66,614
Applied Partnership Awards 1,277,278 847,718
Applied Research Projects in Dementia 101,639 -
Capacity Building for Evidence Synthesis/Cochrane Fellowships 584,540 796,391
Collaborative Applied Research Grants 114,490 -
Covid 19 - Rapid Response Call - 4,507,775
Dementia and Neurodegeneration Network Ireland 71,670 81,620
Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of the Framework for Safe Nurse Staffing and Skill Mix 291,653 179,544
Health Research Awards/Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination 156,535 173,484
HRB Collaboration in Ireland for Clinical Effectiveness Reviews 502,886 468,729
Research Collaborative for Quality & Patient Safety 501,899 609,879
Secondary Data Analysis Projects - 108,135
The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing (TILDA) - 3,088,967
HRB Health Research Centres 521,643 487,696
The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing: Intellectual Disability Supplement 478,266 571,865

Enabler A: Support exceptional researchers and leaders (Support the exceptional researchers, talent and leadership we need to undertake high-quality health research and generate evidence)

2019 2020
HRB Research Leaders Awards & Clinician Scientist Awards 2,101,618 2,254,962
Structured Population & Health Research Education (SPHeRE)/PhD Scholars Programmes 1,209,861 972,584
Applying Research into Policy & Practice Postdoctoral Fellowships 355,422 404,733
Cancer Nursing Research - Project Development Grant 10,000 -
Clinician Scientist Postdoctoral Fellowship 438,615
Emerging Investigator Awards 2,106,400 2,605,793
Fulbright Awards 30,000 29,727
Health Professional Fellowships 549,152 235,719
HRB Internship Programme 86,679 285,028
HRB/NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Programme 23,104 -
Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement Awards 474,570 213,612
Emerging Clinician Scientist Awards - 762,300
Collaborative Doctoral Awards - 1,789,258
Ulysses Awards 10,000 -
HRB IMPACT Awards - 15,585
National Cancer Control Programme Training 8,322 -
National Specialist Registrar/Senior Registrar Fellowship Academic Programme 5,063 74,756
NCI Summer Curriculum in Cancer Prevention 23,695 -
Summer Student Scholarships 187,200 61,800

Enabler B: Build a strong enabling environment (Build a strong enabling environment for health research in Ireland)

2019 2020
Clinical Research Facilities 2,198,669 2,754,453
Proof of Concept Technical Model for Data Access, Storage, Sharing and Linkage (DASSL) 184,416 185,584
Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science and Industry (IPPOSI) contribution 75,000 75,000
Public Patient Involvement-Ignite Award 235,571 638,157

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