Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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862. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the next higher education research and development survey will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43025/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey is undertaken every two years among Ireland’s publicly-funded higher education institutions. The last iteration, covering the 2018-2019 academic year, was conducted by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Following a Government decision to transfer certain research and innovation functions, the HERD Survey is the responsibility of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science from 2021 onwards. 

The next survey, covering the 2020-2021 academic year, will be undertaken in 2022 and its publication is expected in Q4 2022.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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863. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the next higher education system performance framework will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43026/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Since the publication of the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030, the strategic policy context for the System Performance Framework has continued to evolve, including recent significant changes in the higher education landscape. The publication of the Statement of Strategy by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science earlier this year sets out the priorities of the new department for the period 2021-2023 and includes a commitment to deliver a revised system performance framework for Higher Education, which reflects national goals and priorities. 

Work is underway to progress this, with a view to having a new system performance framework in place in advance of the academic year 2022-2023.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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864. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the successor strategy to Innovation 2020 will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43027/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The development of a new national strategy for research and innovation (R&I) is a key commitment in the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan 2021, which sets out the “dual ambition of placing research, development and innovation at the heart of addressing Ireland’s economic and societal challenges, and building capacity and capability across the research and innovation system to move R&I up the value chain.”

The strategy will be a whole-of-Government strategy, as was the case for Innovation 2020, with my Department leading the development of the  strategy.

A public consultation on the strategy was held in June & July earlier this year. In total, we received over 110 submissions in the public consultation from a range of stakeholders. In late June, the Department held an online stakeholder event where a wide range of stakeholders from across Ireland’s R&I system came together to discuss the issues raised in the consultation paper and inform the strategy. A number of further meetings with key stakeholders have begun and will continue to run into autumn of this year.

Development is ongoing, but it is the intention that the next strategy will set a vision and ambition for Ireland’s R&I system that all relevant actors will identify with and contribute to, with ambitious national strategic goals and objectives out to 2027. Successive action-led Work Programmes will map out specific deliverables over shorter timescales. This will enable agility and responsiveness over the full period of the strategy and a strong focus on delivery and reform.

I intend on bringing the strategy to Government for approval and subsequent publication later this year.