Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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436. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of Science Foundation Ireland funding that will be ring-fenced for research investment in technological universities in 2022; the amount of Science Foundation Ireland research funding that has been allocated to technological universities and institutes of technology each year since 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55560/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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A key mission for TUs is the building of research capacity and the promotion of innovation and its diffusion, through support for firm-level innovation, developing research centres and gateways in established and emerging regional clusters and ensuring that the research system in the regions is internationally connected.

In respect of competitive funding calls carried out by Science Foundation Ireland, the position is as follows. SFI does not ring-fence funding for research projects that have not been internationally peer reviewed. The agency only funds research that meets the requisite bar of excellence which ensures that Ireland continues to compete at an international level.

The Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities have been successful in securing multi-annual funding from SFI through this rigorous review process. A total of €1,025,049 is due to be allocated to these investments in 2022.

A summary of investments to IoTs and TUs since 2011 is given in the following table.

SFI is committed to increasing geographical involvement and engagement in research throughout Ireland. The Technological Universities and Institutes of Technology are a critical element of this strategy and are home to significant research talent and infrastructure.

In 2021, SFI launched a new programme - SFI Frontiers for Partnerships which is designed to facilitate more research partnerships between the TU/IoT and University sectors. The key goal of this programme is to support highly excellent, impactful research which benefits from the unique strengths of both sectors. The programme also aims to increase the research capacity of the TU/IoTs and to increase the number of PhD students in the TU/IoT sector.