The State will co-fund salaries for top academics as part of a scheme to poach overseas talent for Ireland’s universities, under plans going to the Cabinet on Tuesday.
The effort is expected to target, among others, disillusioned academics in the United States who have lost financial backing due to interventions by the Trump administration.
Minister for Higher and Further Education James Lawless will brief Ministers on his plan for a global talent initiative, which will see a team of talent “attaches” deployed around the globe to court high-calibre researchers, as well as a team in Ireland.
Under the plan, being developed with Research Ireland, salaries for those who take up posts will be funded by universities and directly by the exchequer, which is a departure from the norm, Government sources said, where higher education institutes usually have autonomous funding powers for recruitment.
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This will be done on a temporary basis, although it is yet to be decided how long the funding will be offered for.
The US will be targeted, along with other countries, with researchers sought who are working in areas such as renewable energy, food security, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, medtech and healthcare.
It is expected that research funding will be paired with start-up supports as part of the effort, for circumstances such as spin-out companies associated with third-level institutions. Researchers will have to work in higher-level settings in order to be eligible.
At an event on Monday hosted by the Irish Universities Association, Mr Lawless said there had already been inquiries about options to work in Ireland.
While the US became a global leader in research after the second World War, “the last few months has undoubtedly changed how people view the US when it comes to research”, said Mr Lawless at the event attended by all seven presidents of Irish universities.
“It has become a cold place for free thinkers and talented researchers. Faculties are having pledged funding revoked, institutes are facing shutdown,” he added.
Meanwhile, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill will update the Cabinet on Sláintecare reforms, including new figures showing reductions in daily trolley counts – down 11 per cent in 2024 compared with 2023. She will also give an update on surgical hub construction.
Ms MacNeill will tell Ministers that performance in emergency care improved over the May bank-holiday weekend when compared with Easter and St Brigid’s Day, outlining that there were 21 per cent fewer patients on trolleys compared with the same periods in 2024.
