Annual Report
View the Annual Report 2025
In 2025, Research Ireland supported excellent research across all disciplines and career stages, from discovery through to translation. This work helped advance knowledge, inform public policy, enrich culture, improve lives and strengthen Ireland’s competitiveness.
The year also marked an important step in Research Ireland’s role as more than a funder. The agency supported Government policy, strengthened research standards, engaged the public and connected partners across academia, enterprise, government and society.
Research Ireland manages and invests public funding to support research across all disciplines. In 2025, the agency committed €288 million to support 1,053 new awards and made €313 million in grant payments across its programmes.
Public investment in research also leveraged additional funding and extended impact beyond Exchequer investment, including €310 million leveraged through Research Ireland investments, €227.3 million in non-Exchequer funding and €129 million secured from EU funding.
View the full Annual Report 2025 (English)View the full Annual Report 2025 (English)
View the full Annual Report 2025 (Irish)View the full Annual Report 2025 (Irish)
Research Ireland’s first Annual Report reflects a year of ambition, delivery and change. Through our new strategy, we have set out a clear vision for a balanced and internationally competitive research and innovation system. Balance means supporting discovery and translation, Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences alongside STEM, researchers at every career stage, and both individual excellence and large-scale collaboration. Funding remains our primary tool, but our role goes beyond that. As a strategic partner, convenor and enabler, we are committed to creating the conditions for research and innovation to deliver lasting benefits for Ireland’s people, economy and society.
Talent - Empowering People
- 3,230 PhDs funded across all disciplines
- 1,487 postdoctoral fellows funded across all disciplines
- 5,887 research publications reported and 454 policy outputs, technical reports and non-journal publications
Society - Driving Solutions
- 8 winners and 96 teams supported through the National Challenge Fund
- 1,115 engagements between our funded researchers and government departments and agencies
- 837 engagements between our funded researchers and private foundations, charities and NGOs
Economy - Strengthening Competitiveness
- 58k+ jobs supported directly and indirectly across Ireland
- 70% of Research Ireland funded PhD graduates join industry and public sector
- Ireland is 1st in knowledge diffusion – how ideas, skills and innovation spread across society and the economy
Connecting Internationally
Research Ireland supports researchers to collaborate, lead and compete internationally, connecting Ireland’s research system with partners around the world. In 2025, researchers supported by Research Ireland participated in more than 7,800 international collaborations across 106 countries and secured €200 million in Horizon Europe funding.
Ireland’s global research excellence was further demonstrated through success in the European Research Council, where researchers secured 20 prestigious awards across STEM and Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines. Research Ireland also strengthened key international partnerships, including with the United States, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom, creating new opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange and shared research ambitions.
