US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme

The Governments of the United States of America, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have come together for a unique initiative to advance scientific progress in fields that will have a significant impact on the health, well-being and economic prosperity of all their citizens.

The “US-Ireland R&D Partnership” links scientists and engineers in partnerships across academia and industry to address crucial research questions; fosters new and existing industrial research activity that could make an important contribution to the respective economies: and expands educational and research career opportunities in science & engineering.

The following thematic areas are prioritised as important research grand challenges for the health and prosperity of the citizens of the United States, Ireland and Northern Ireland:

This U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership has its origins in the U.S.-Ireland Business Summit that took place in Washington, DC in 2002.

The Partnership is guided by a joint Steering Group composed of senior representatives from government, academia and private industry across the three jurisdictions.

Working groups, with representatives from each jurisdiction, have been established in each thematic area to advise and make recommendations to the Steering Group on the scientific themes and issues to be addressed in each area.

Under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership, a ‘single-proposal, single-review’ mechanism is facilitated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) who accept submissions from tri-jurisdictional teams to a number of their existing funding programmes.

As part of this funding process the governments (and/or relevant government research agencies within the Partnership) contribute to the research costs of researchers based in their jurisdictions. All proposals submitted under the auspices of the Partnership must have significant research involvement from researchers in all three jurisdictions. See section (US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme – Application Procedure) below for further details on the application procedure.

New criteria for Republic of Ireland applicants – November 2009

Science Foundation Ireland has implemented new criteria for their applicants (i.e. those from the Republic of Ireland) submitting planning grants/draft proposals/full proposals to the US-Ireland R&D Partnership programme.  They are as follows:

  1. Upper limit on the requested budget:   The budget for full applications from applicants in the Republic of Ireland has been capped at €350K, therefore the budget request should be no greater than €350K, equating to an average of €110K/yr for a 3 year award.
  2. Only one US/IRL award per person: If an applicant has been successful in securing a US/IRL award, they will not be entitled to apply for a second award until the last 18 months of their first award.  SFI will not accept a second application whilst the first application is still under review.
  3. Only SFI awardees can apply for the US-Ireland R&D Partnership programme:    Only SFI awardees holding/having held a SFI award§, may apply to the US-Ireland programme.  §Applicable SFI awards include PI-like awards i.e. SFI PI, SFI PIYRA, SFI PICA, SFI Research Professor Recruitment award, as well as the SFI Research Frontiers Programme award. Those awardees who are PI or co-PIs on CSETs and SRCs, are also eligible to apply.

    Those who hold/have held competitive, non-SFI funding e.g. Wellcome Trust or ERC, will be considered on a case-by-case basis.  Non-SFI awardees who think that they satisfy this criteria, must contact SFI in advance of submitting a draft proposal*, to receive approval to submit. 

    (*NOTE: the draft proposal has to be submitted to SFI no later than 6 weeks in advance of the full submission deadline.)

US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme – Application Procedure

To facilitate a ‘single-proposal, single-review’ mechanism, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) accept submissions from tri-jurisdictional teams to a number of their existing funding programmes. Consequently applicants should design their proposal (including the total requested budget) based on the guidelines and criteria outlined in the relevant programme call and associated documentation. Please see ‘guidelines for submission to NSF’ and ‘guidelines for submission to NIH’ for further details of identified programmes and submission details.

Before submission to the NSF/NIH the Irish partner is required to submit a draft proposal to SFI six weeks in advance of the NSF/NIH deadline.  SFI reviews the draft proposal in relation to remit, budget and eligibility criteria and decides to support or decline submission to the NSF/NIH.  The final decision on the scientific merit of the tri-partite proposal lies with the NSF/NIH post peer review.

A minimum of one co-principal investigator from each jurisdiction – Northern Ireland, United States, and Republic of Ireland, must be named on the proposal to be deemed eligible for funding under the Partnership. The scientific application with supporting materials will be jointly prepared by the investigators/co-investigators from each jurisdication. Following scientific merit review, if the proposal is being actively considered for funding,the NSF and NIH will provide SFI with appropriate feedback to facilitate SFI’s final funding decision on the Republic of Ireland applicant’s budget request.

 How to apply:

  1. Call for proposals to the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme (pdf)
  2.  SFI guidelines for submission to NSF programmes under the auspices of the Partnership programme (pdf)
  3. SFI guidelines for submission to NIH programmes under the auspices of the Partnership programme (pdf)
  4. Guidance document HHS NIH (pdf)
  5. SFI-specific documentation: SFI cover sheet and budget template.

Planning Grants                                                                                                                  

The aim of the SFI US-Ireland R & D Partnership Planning Grant is to provide planning travel support to researchers in Ireland to travel to the United States in order to develop specific projects with US collaborators for identified programmes under the NSF and NIH auspices.  Planning grants are not a pre-requisite for all Ireland researchers who subsequently intend to submit a formal application, under the auspices of the US-Ireland R & D Partnership, to SFI for matching funding for any NSF and NIH competitions.  They are intended as a vehicle to facilitate development of the tri-jurisdictional application.  Should this tripartite application be successful, funding will be provided by the applicable agency to the partners in their jurisdiction. SFI has agreed to manage the assessment process of these planning grants on behalf of Invest NI.

How to apply:

  1. Call for planning grant proposals
  2. Submission of proposals (planning grant application form and support notes)

 Deadlines: Applications are accepted under a rolling call for 2008

For further information please email: usireland@sfi.ie

The secretariat for the Partnership on the island of Ireland is provided by:

InterTradeIreland:
Dr. Bernadette McGahon, Tel: +4428 30834100
Email: bernadette.mcgahon@intertradeireland.com
Website: www.intertradeireland.com

The agencies/representatives from Northern Ireland involved in the partnership are:

Invest Northern Ireland:
Mr Paul Malcomson , Email: paul.malcomson@investni.com: Tel: 44 (0) 28 9069 8836

Department for Education and Learning:
Mr. Boyd McDowell, E-mail: boyd.mcdowell@delni.gov.uk Tel: +44 (0)28 90 257749