The Government confirmed its commitment to fourth level education with the announcement today formally inviting funding proposals from universities and institutes of technology under the Government’s new €300 million Strategic Innovation Fund for higher education.

A formal ‘call for proposals’ was issued today on behalf of the Minister by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), which has been given responsibility for administering the multi-annual fund. In this first call for proposals, €40 million will be available for allocation.

The Strategic Innovation Fund amounts to €300 million over 5 years. In this first call for proposals, €40 million will be available for allocation to third level institutions. Two further calls of €130 million each are envisaged. The proposals received will be evaluated on a competitive basis by an independent international panel. The funding awards will be notified to institutions in October.

The announcement follows the €3.8 billion Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation announced by the Taoiseach two weeks ago and demonstrates the scale of the Government’s ambition to seriously advance Ireland’s status as a world class research and development hub over the coming years.

Source: HEA