Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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1197. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures that his Department has taken to develop public research partnerships in Ireland excluding within the EU horizons framework; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20283/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I am taking public research partnerships to mean research collaborations between publicly-funded bodies and the private sector.

My Department allocates specific competitive funding for research through Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC). In 2021, SFI and the IRC spent €257 million to that end. Higher Education Institutions also fund research from their block grants.

Collaboration is an important element of research. For example, SFI's Research Centres link scientists and engineers in partnerships across academia and industry to address crucial research questions, and  he IRC’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme is a unique national initiative that links researchers in all disciplines to enterprise.