Government Budget Allocations for R&D 2016-17
Government Budget Allocations
The Government Budget Allocations for R&D metric (GBARD) in Ireland is considered to be the indicator for benchmarking of State-funded performance of research and development.
IDA Ireland
In Ireland, the budget allocation includes government funding of R&D programs in higher education. These are administered by the Department of Education and Skills, the Higher Education Authority, Science Foundation Ireland and others. Additionally, the budget allocation also includes government funding for research and development in the business sector. These are administered through State agencies such as IDA Ireland, among others. Government funding for research and development performed in the public sector as well as contributions of the government towards international R&D programmes are also included in GBARD.
Department of Business, Enterprise, and Innovation
It is worth noting that the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation was responsible for the biggest share of government investment in R&D in 2016. As such, this department was received 52% of the total R&D investment. On the other hand, the department of education and skills in 2016 received R&D investment of 24.7% of the total (€177.7m). In third place, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine accounted for 13% of the total.
Science Foundation Ireland
Moreover, the largest public body funding the research and development activities in 2016 was the Science Foundation Ireland, which contributed to 25.6 % of government R&D support. This was mainly through grants and other programs supporting research. However, in 2017, the funds allocated towards SFI decreased to 22.5% of total Government spending. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) was the second largest funder of R&D activities. However, in 2017, the HEA budget also reduced, going from €23.7m to €19.7m.
