Postgraduate research in the health services was given a major boost today with €4 million set aside for two new training sites.
The funding was granted to develop two new Health Research Board (HRB) sites for PhD training following the success of a site established at Trinity College Institute of Neurosciences last year.
"A high standard of quality training is essential to ensure the calibre of the Irish PhD graduate is competitive. This is why we piloted the HRB Scholar Scheme, which allows PhD students to access a wide range of training and first rate research skills, under the direction of an established team of investigators," Prof Desmond Fitzgerald, chairman of the HRB board, said.
"This commitment comes on top of government and EU stipulations for the need to substantially increase the number of researchers in Ireland by 2010 in order to underpin a national system of innovation."
Finance Minister Brian Cowen said the importance of PhD training had been acknowledged through funds set aside in the Budget.
The scholar site at Trinity College Institute for Neurosciences was established last year - with research into the underlying causes of several central nervous system disorders, including multiple sclerosis, depression, autism and blindness.
Scholars at the site at St James's Hospital and Trinity College Dublin are focusing on how to benefit fully from the completion of the human genome project, which was a major step forward in researchers ability to study the impact of genetic factors on human disease.
The research is expected to increase understanding of the ways genes interact with environmental factors such as diet, infections and toxin exposure, to cause common diseases.
Applications will be invited from institutions during 2006 to establish the two new sites that will focus on biomedical and clinical sciences, health services research or epidemiology and public health.