Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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431. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when a new national strategy for research and innovation will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55508/21]

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.”

My Department is leading the development of this new national strategy, in consultation with key Government Departments, agencies and stakeholders. This new Department has been established with a clear mandate to work with all stakeholders to strengthen Ireland’s R&I ecosystem, drive reform and collaboration, and enhance outcomes which contribute to meeting societal, economic and global challenges.

The Strategy is under conclusion by the Department with a view to final consultation with Government Departments and agencies this year. Following formal Government approval, publication is expected in early 2022.

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. 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.