The government has announced a new partnership with industry to recruit and retain research talent with the aim of attracting up to 400 PhD students to undertake research in Ireland around challenges such as climate change, water poverty, and cybersecurity during the initial phase.
Innovate for Ireland will offer Irish and international students across relevant disciplines from science, technology and engineering to the arts, humanities and social sciences, a stipend of €28,000. The programme has been benchmarked against similar schemes internationally.
"This government has a deep commitment to research and innovation and to addressing global sustainability," Taoiseach Micheál Martin said. "We need more top-class researchers and innovators to make Ireland a leader in overcoming the grand challenges of our times.
"That is what this programme Innovate for Ireland will achieve. It will ensure the best minds are advancing solutions here in Ireland and in so doing enhance our talent offering and our dynamic innovation ecosystem. I welcome the private sectors support for this initiative."
Announcing the programme, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said: "Through partnership with the private sector, this collaboration will help us to ensure our brightest and best stay in Ireland but also that we continue to attract talent to Ireland. Today is an important step. A competitive call will now follow.
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"Innovate for Ireland aligns with strategic goals in the government's Impact 2030 Strategy and my own department’s Strategy Statement 2021-2023. This programme will establish Ireland as a globally renowned hub of talent development and knowledge creation."
The state will make a multi-million euro investment over a number of years to be matched by private investors, with detailed still to be negotiated and finalised.
The programme will be managed by Science Foundation Ireland, in partnership with with the Irish Research Council and the Health Research Board. A competitive call process aimed at third-level institutions is being developed and should be initiated later this year.
Dómhnal Slattery, CEO of Avolon, who originally proposed the concept of Innovate for Ireland, said: "I strongly believe this will be a transformative initiative for this island, one that will not only establish Ireland as the destination of choice for world-class research students, who will focus primarily on the sustainability challenges the entire world faces, but it will also deliver a strong pipeline of workplace-ready innovators to our shores over the next decade.
"Innovate for Ireland will hugely benefit both our economy and our society. This ambitious collaboration will place this island of scholars exactly where we need to be, and that is at the forefront of game-changing global innovation."
(Pic: Getty Images)
