Advancing Humanities and Social Sciences Research in Ireland

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Building Ireland’s HSS community—priorities to 2013 The capacity of the HSS research base must be further strengthened to ensure its continued contribution to stated national R&D-policy goals, namely the achievement of a knowledge-based, innovative economy and society. Key steps towards achieving this should include: • Initiating a national foresight exercise for the HSS; • Increasing investment in HSS research schemes; • Internationalising of HSS research including increased international research collaboration and mobility; • Securing the supply of HSS researchers (developing postgraduate training and researcher careers); • Strengthening the HSS research infrastructure (print, physical and digital). A national foresight exercise for the HSS Researchers in the sciences, engineering and technology benefited greatly from the identification of priority research areas in the 1998 technology foresight exercise. A similar exercise should be undertaken for the HSS research community and should focus on a number of broad issues including: • Identification of priority research areas with reference to existing research capacity, future potential for research excellence and contribution to strategic policy research; • Support for the development of a critical research mass and for individual investigator research; • Development of a research infrastructure; • Expansion and development of sources of HSS research funding; • Research dissemination and communication; • Doctoral training and the development of research career pathways. xviii
Increased investment in HSS research Additional investment is required if Ireland is to achieve even the EU-average expend iture on HSS research. Resource-allocation models at sectoral and institutional levels must take account of this overall objective. A short-term goal would be the return of Irish HSS Higher Education Expenditure on Research and Development (HERD) allocations to their relative levels in 2002. Increased funding should be channelled into four main areas: • Expansion of research programmes and initiatives; • Capital infrastructure: provision of more research space, technical support, library and IT support (including the maintenance of non-digital resources and digitisation projects), and increased support for resources such as libraries, archives and museums; • Human resources: training, career structures and supports for researchers; • Mobility and exchange networks. A significant issue, hampering the development of HSS research within the highereducation sector, is the non-payment of institutional overheads by agencies and bodies funding HSS higher-education research. Consideration should be given to the development of a common protocol across all research-funding agencies and bodies for the payment of such overheads, which is cognisant of the costs and differences across the different types of research. Internationalisation of HSS research Participation in EU and international networks is vital to Ireland’s objective of creating a world-class research system. However, the Irish HSS share of higher-education research expenditure drawn from EU and foreign sources is falling and the Irish HSS community has a relatively low level of participation in European funding initiatives. If the Irish HSS research community is to participate effectively in international research and funding opportunities, a range of supports must be provided including those to facilitate mobility, participation and collaboration. These supports include: xix
Page 1: A D V A N C I N G H U M A N I T I E
Page 4 and 5: 7 HSS RESEARCH AND THE EUROPEAN UNI
Page 6 and 7: Table 11 HERD expenditure on humani
Page 9 and 10: Glossary AAI CONUL COST CSC DES DET
Page 11 and 12: Foreword The Royal Irish Academy (R
Page 13 and 14: Preface This report is the result o
Page 15 and 16: 1 Executive summary INTRODUCTION In
Page 17: • Enhanced investment in national
Page 21 and 22: • Establish a national research r
Page 23: 2 Introduction Education and resear
Page 26 and 27: • Facilitate cultural exchange in
Page 28 and 29: A LL- ISLAND RESEARCH COLLABORATION
Page 30 and 31: • Identify competing and compleme
Page 32 and 33: educational, entrepreneurial and ma
Page 35 and 36: 4 Strategic planning in the HSS 4.1
Page 38 and 39: teaching, learning and research cap
Page 40 and 41: of research, as part of the new res
Page 42 and 43: ‘PROMOTING THE STUDY OF SCIENCE,
Page 44 and 45: the values? What shapes them? What
Page 47 and 48: 5 The HSS in Ireland: funding profi
Page 49 and 50: 5.1.1 SOURCES OF HERD There are sig
Page 51 and 52: In contrast, the percentage share o
Page 53 and 54: Chart 3—HSS HERD direct-governmen
Page 55 and 56: measured the human resources involv
Page 57 and 58: to Gross National Income (GNI) is u
Page 59 and 60: Table 8—Sources of HERD expenditu
Page 61 and 62: Table 10—Sources of HSS HERD as a
Page 63 and 64: In terms of direct government suppo
Page 65 and 66: 6. Research infrastructures for the
Page 67 and 68: I RELAND’ S PARTICIPATION IN THE
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• Continuing investment in both t
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6.4 OBSERVATIONS It is important to
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involvement in transnational, parti
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STRENGTHENING IRISH HSS RESEARCH BY
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funding for Research Training Netwo
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Table 14—Summary of participation
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7.2 OBSERVATIONS Given the increasi
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8 Doctoral studies and research car
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The level of funding available to I
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F OSTERING LINKAGES BETWEEN ACADEMI
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While the SSTI acknowledges that a
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européen, the material covered mus
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Participation in European and inter
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8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 and future te
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Appendix I: Membership of the Royal
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Appendix II: Membership of the RIA
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Japan 1.00 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50
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Japan Chart 8—HERD expenditure on
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put more money into R&D activities
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Norway’s involvement in the EU FP
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References Bric, M.J. 1999 The huma
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SSHERA 2005b Position Paper (PP11):
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Irish Council for Science, Technolo
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