Government Invests €7.9 million in Early Career Researchers – Forging a Career in Science

‘Government committed to supporting early-career Irish-based researchers’ - Lenihan

“It is vital that we have in Ireland the mechanism to keep and attract to Ireland highly skilled early stage career researchers” Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Mr Conor Lenihan T.D. said today (Tuesday, October 20^th, 2009) as he announced Government funding of €7.9million under a new Science Foundation Ireland initiative that will help 15 highly-talented researchers at an early stage in their profession to progress towards a fully independent academic research career.

Announcing the first SFI Starting Investigator Research Grant (SIRG) awards, Minister Lenihan said “These 15 outstanding individuals are among the brightest working in Irish laboratories today, and SIRG provides them with the necessary support to enable the transition from team member to independent and accomplished innovators in their respective fields. It will also allow them to recruit 15 postgraduate students”.

The Minister added “SIRG is the instrument to ensure that the best trained post doctoral scientists can be both attracted to and retained in Ireland which is central to our overall national aim of building a sustainable world class research system. SIRG not only provides financial backing but crucially also provides structured support and expert advice to these highly capable early-career researchers as they navigate through this critical period in their careers. The research of these successful awardees will focus on strategic areas such as renewable energy, cancer research, genetics, and telecommunications that will benefit both society and the economy” the Minister concluded.

The 15 award recipients are based in the following seven Higher Education Institutions:

Tyndall National Institute, Cork (4 awards); Trinity College Dublin (4 awards); NUI Galway (3 awards); Dublin Institute of Technology (1 award); University College Cork (1 award); University College Dublin (1 award); and Waterford Institute of Technology (1 award).

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Today’s announcement took place in the Royal College of Physicians, Dublin.

For further information, please contact: Alva O'Cleirigh, Communications Manager, SFI, +353 1 607 3249 / + 353 87 9152553 or Carl Gibney, Fleishman-Hillard +353 1 6188428 / + 353 86 0459555