Advancing Humanities and Social Sciences Research in Ireland

5 The HSS in Ireland: funding profile
This chapter examines investment in HSS R&D in the higher-education sector in
Ireland and discusses key trends drawing on the measure Higher Education
Expenditure on Research and Development (HERD) 11 as this is the key source of
funding for Irish HSS research. 12 The object is to situate the HERD data for the HSS
within the broader national and international data on total HERD.
Section 5.1 explores the historic Irish data and provides a brief discussion of trends
in the composition of HSS higher-education researchers as a supplement to the data
on expenditure. Section 5.2 provides a number of international comparisons and
Section 5.3 summarises the key observations emerging from this analysis.
5.1 TRENDS IN IRISH HSS HERD
Between 1998 and 2004 total Irish HERD increased by 94 per cent from 253.6m
in 1998 to 491.7m in 2004. Most of this increase occurred between 2000 and
2004, when an additional 215m (constant prices) was invested (see Table 1). 1
Actual expenditure on HSS R&D in the higher-education sector (i.e. the allocation
to HSS R&D from total HERD) rose by approximately 50m from 71m in 1998 to
120.5m in 2004—an overall percentage increase of 70 per cent. 14
Despite this increase in the actual amount invested, the HSS are the only field of
science whose percentage share of total HERD declined over the period, falling
from a high of 29 per cent in 2002 to 25 per cent in 2004. This decrease was
proportionately more severe for the humanities, whose percentage share of total
HERD fell from ten to eight per cent, while the social sciences’ share fell from nineteen
to seventeen per cent (see Chart 1).
11
In accordance with OECD classification structures HERD in Ireland is classified into six broad
academic fields: natural sciences, engineering, medical sciences, agricultural sciences, social sciences
and humanities. HERD funding sources are broken down into six major categories: direct government
(targeted initiatives such as the PRTLI), indirect government (derived from the HEA annual ‘block grant’
to universities), EU, foreign sources, Irish business, ‘other and own’ (which refers to higher-education
institutions capacity to source funds independently e.g. from philanthropic sources) (Forfás 2005a).
12
While beyond the scope of this particular paper, philanthropic contributions and donations are
widely acknowledged to have provided much support for HSS research in recent years.
13
Forfás supplied much of the data used in the tables in this chapter. The original data were submitted to
Forfás for compilation from the universities, institutes of technology and technology centres located within
colleges. The data are prepared in accordance with the OECD/Frascati Manual (1993/2002) guidelines
for estimating levels of research and development in the higher-education sector (Forfás 2005a).
14
Based on an examination of expenditure patterns in HERD allocations to the HSS in comparison to
total HERD.