• To build research capacity, expertise and reputation through funding excellent scientific research .​
• To fund highly innovative Awards with strong potential for economic and societal impact and to provide the opportunity to conduct high-risk, high-reward Projects.
• To provide additional supports for excellent woman researchers to secure funding.
• To retain and improve Ireland’s reputation as a place to carry out excellent research.
• To facilitate researchers based in Ireland to lead consortia and to win further support through various non-Exchequer funding schemes​.
• To allow Ireland-based researchers to win top-tier international prizes.
• To develop an integrated research ecosystem through partnerships with other agencies.
• To support the growth and development of research capacity for the Technological University and Institute of Technology sector.
• To support relevant collaborations and partnerships, and attract talent from outside of the Republic of Ireland.
• To support researchers returning to active academic research after a period of eligible leave.

Programme Remit

The Projects and Awards streams of the Frontiers for the Future Programme currently align to SFI’s legal remit. However, it is anticipated that the FFP Awards stream will be revised later in 2024, such that its scope reflects the broader remit of the new agency, Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland. Likewise, Subsequent calls to the FFP Projects stream will be revised to align with the remit of the new agency.

Full details on programme eligibility are available in the 2024 Call Document. In summary:

• Applicants must have held a PhD or equivalent qualification for at least three years by proposal submission.
• Applicants are required to have demonstrated that they have been a senior author on at least three international peer-reviewed articles (see the programme call document for details).
• For details on the criteria around the employment status of applicants, please see the call document.
• For applicant eligibility details for the Research Ireland-CHF collaboration please see Appendix B in the call document.
• Lead Applicant or Co-Applicant salary is not an eligible cost for the Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme. Applicants must obtain their salary either from an award in their own name (excluding fellowship-type awards) or be salaried by the host institution. Postdoctoral researchers (or equivalent) are not eligible to apply to this call.
• Applicants must be independent researchers hosted by an Eligible Research Body. A list of Eligible Research Bodies is available on SFI.ie.
• Further restrictions may apply if the applicants currently hold an Research Ireland grant or are under review for another Research Ireland Programme. Please see the call document for further details.
• Applicants who hold joint appointments must contact FFP@researchireland.ie in advance of submission with details of those appointments.
• Awards stream applicants requesting a budget in excess of €1,000,000 must contact FFP@researchireland.ie ahead of submission for approval.

Applicants to the Programme Projects and Awards streams who fulfil the programme eligibility criteria listed above can choose to be reviewed as an “Emerging Investigator” if they also:

• have not previously held a significant Research Ireland research award or
• have had a period of eligible leave from research

*Please note that if you are applying for consideration in the Research Ireland-CHF collaboration, there are specific eligibility criteria for emerging investigators. Please see Appendix B in the call document for details.

The “Emerging Investigator” category will be assessed alongside and against the same criteria as all other applicants; however, the weighting of the review scores will mean that there is increased emphasis on the quality of the research over the track record.

Please see the Call Document for further details.

The Projects stream has now closed for submissions.

Lead Applicants on Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Award stream proposals may submit a proposal to Research Ireland through their host institution Research Office at any time.

The Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Awards stream call will remain open until further notice.

Please note: Anyone with an Awards stream application currently in preparation will not need to restart the submission process, but they will need to ensure that their application adheres to the policy guidelines in the 2024 Call Document.

The Application form for the Awards Stream is currently available on SESAME.

A recording of the Information Webinar for applicants and research office staff can be viewed on YouTube and below:

Research Ireland is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). As such, Research Ireland is aligning its review and evaluation processes with DORA principles. To this end, all types of research output are recognised by Research Ireland and we are committed to assessing the quality and impact of research through means other than journal impact factors. Research Ireland has developed a Narrative CV template to assist with compliance to DORA principles. Furthermore, in the spirit of supporting open research and as a signatory of Plan S, Research Ireland will positively consider where there is a commitment to making data and other types of research open and accessible.

Applications will be reviewed under three key review criteria:

Quality, significance and relevance of the applicant’s and co-applicant’s (if relevant) key achievements and research track record, commensurate with their career stage and research discipline, taking any periods of leave into account and considering the quality and relevance of the collaborators and/or mentor, if relevant. *

The following areas will be considered: 1) Generation of Knowledge, 2) Development of Individuals and Collaboration, 3) Supporting Broader Society & the Economy and, 4) Supporting the Research Community.

Quality, significance, novelty, and strategic relevance of the research plan

Including importance, timeliness of the proposed research; quality of institutional support; communication and description of the research; comprehension of the current state of the art; value for money, the Sex and Gender dimension, etc.

Potential impact and value to Ireland**/***

Including appreciation of how research may be developed and exploited in the medium-to-long term; realistic and convincing evaluation of the benefits that will result from a successful project; areas and fields where impacts are likely to be made etc.

*For the Emerging Investigator category, weighting of the review scores will mean that there is increased emphasis on the quality of the research over the track record

**The weighting of the review scores will mean that there is decreased emphasis on the impact criterion for Research Ireland Frontiers for the Future Programme Projects compared to Awards.

***Applicants to the Research Ireland-CHF Collaboration, please see Appendix B in the call document for score weighting associated with this co-funding opportunity.

An outline of the Frontiers for the Future Programme review process can be found in the programme call document. A schematic of the review can be found here.

• Frontiers for the Future Programme Call Document (PDF)
• Frontiers for the Future Applicant and Co-Applicant CV Template (Word)
• Frontiers for the Future Collaborator CV Template (Word) 
• Schematic of the Research Ireland Frontiers to the Future Programme review process

Research Ireland reserves the right to make amendments to the documents if required. Please ensure to refer to the most recent version of the programme documentation. Research Offices will be contacted in the event of any updates to the call document.

The Impact Webinar is designed to assist applicants to programme calls in formulating their Impact Statement. Applicants are encouraged to view this webinar in advance of preparing an application to the programme.