Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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347. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the budget that is available in the pursuit of gender equality for postgraduates and researcher postgraduate students; the way in which it is being allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18941/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In 2022, my Department’s budget for Research, Innovation and Science is €255m. This represents 8.5% of my Department’s voted allocation for 2022. HEIs also fund R&I from their block allocations, but have autonomy in how that funding is applied.

My Department provides funding for postgraduate research through both Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC). Funding is also provided by other statutory funders and, of course, private funders. Stipends are typically a feature of such funding globally, providing an income to the awardee in recognition of the need to devote themselves on a full-time basis to their research.

My Department is monitoring the issue of stipends, in the context of the resources available to my Department and the competing needs to which they can be allocated. In this regard, I was pleased to be able to allocate additional funding to the IRC in 2021 to enable it to increase postgraduate scholarships by €2,500 per annum, or 16%. This was made effective from 1 January 2021 and, together with an increase to funding for postdoctoral salaries, benefited close to 1,300 early-career researchers in the system. The move also aligned the stipend level for both the IRC and SFI.

Officials in my Department have been undertaking am examination of the issues in relation to academic support activities of PhD students. This has been done in collaboration with the Irish Universities Association and Technological Higher Education Association and the National Advisory Forum for Ireland’s Framework for Doctoral Education.

This work includes looking at international practice and gathering information on the institutions’ expectations of PhD students to undertake academic support activities across the higher education system.

Building on this initial work, I wrote to the Presidents of the HEIs requesting that they undertake a sectoral exercise to agree a set of high-level principles to which all institutions can work towards. As part of this I am proposing that they undertake a gap analysis to determine the next steps in progressing towards greater consistency and transparency in arrangements for postgraduate researchers, in advance of the next academic year. I have also written to the sector’s representative bodies, the IUA and THEA, requesting that they work in close partnership to ensure that the pathways scoped out allow for convergence of approaches across the entire higher education sector.

I will be seeking regular updates on progress with this work at meetings of the National Advisory Forum for Ireland’s Framework for Doctoral Education.

Specifically, the Irish Research Council (IRC) does not implement means-testing for Irish Research Council PhD scholarships. Postgraduate scholarships are allocated solely on the basis of the quality of the research proposal as determined by independent international peer review. All successful applicants who meet the terms and conditions of the scheme are awarded a stipend of €18,500 per year, up to a maximum of four years. Students in receipt of a stipend can also apply for SUSI grant support.

The IRC has taken specific measures this year to enhance the support it provides to researchers of any career stage who are parents or carers. The IRC published a new policy in this regard effective 1 November 2021 which gives postgraduate awardees the entitlement to continuity of the stipend for approved periods of leave for purposes of maternity, paternity or the adoption of a child. This policy introduces a new and important level of support for early-career researchers that become parents, including lone parents.