Science Foundation Ireland will fund 3,000 research scientists next year, despite a minor three per cent cut in its budget for the year.
The foundation’s plans for next year were outlined today in Dublin at a briefing by director general Dr Graham Love, who said how it invests in scientific research is going to change.
He admitted to breathing a “sigh of relief” when the Government’s capital budget was announced earlier this month.
It reduced the foundation’s allocation from €161 million this year to €156 million in 2012. Mr Love said the cut had to be considered the context of the overall contraction in Government spending.
“In that context we would feel very pleased with that,” he said. “We can deliver a lot with €156 million”
The foundation supports 28 research centres, nine Centres for Science and 19 strategic research clusters. The clusters link academics with private sector companies involved in or needing support for research.
From next year these centres will be merged into a single type of research unit, a SFI Research Centre, Dr Love said. The number of these will drop from 28 to between 15 and 18 centres.
Once the reorganisation is complete the funding allocated to these centres will rise from about 30 per cent of the foundation’s budget to around 40 per cent.
Dr Love said the targeted research performed at these new centres would be guided by areas given prominence in a prioritisation exercise, which Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton is due to bring to Cabinet.
This prioritisation exercise will inform strategic investment in scientific research for the coming decade.