Ireland wins a total €386 million of EU funding

This includes 82 individual awards of more than €1 million to companies and Higher Education Institutions.

The Minister of State for Training, Skills and Innovation, John Halligan TD, today (11th April 2017) welcomed the latest results on Ireland’s success in securing competitive funding from the Horizon 2020 programme.

Researchers and companies in Ireland have won a total of €386 million in EU funding from the Horizon 2020 programme from 2014 to February 2017. Higher Education Institutions accounted for €221 million, or 57% of the total and companies won €126 million, or 33%. SMEs received €78 million of the funding to companies.

To date 82 individual participants (companies and researchers) have secured funding of more than €1 million.

Ireland’s best performance was in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions sub-programme which supports the training and mobility of researchers. Ireland has secured €70 million from this programme, equivalent to 3.1% of the committed EU budget. Ireland’s next best programmes were the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and European Research Council programmes, which yielded €62 million and €49 million, respectively.

This performance means that Ireland is on track to achieve its national target of securing €1.25 billion in EU funding over the course of Horizon 2020.

Minister Halligan said that “I am delighted to see the continued success of companies and higher education institutions in Ireland in winning EU funding in open competitions with their peers across the EU. This clearly demonstrates the excellence of the research being undertaken in Ireland”.

Minister Halligan added “Research and Innovation are at the core of the Government’s enterprise strategy for creating new, sustainable jobs. Innovation is vital if companies are to succeed in international markets. The Government allocated €761million for Research and Innovation in 2016 and I am very pleased to see that this national investment is being leveraged to access EU funding”.

Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, commented "I congratulate all the successful winners of EU Horizon 2020 funding and strongly encourage others to try again, or apply for the first time, to these important, competitive, research funding programmes from the European Commission. I am particularly pleased to see: Irish researchers in Industry and Academia lead and win major projects; SFI Research Centres collaborate to secure major funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme; and the substantial improvement in Ireland's success at the European Research Council. This competitively won European funding compliments and leverages the investments made nationally."

Dr Imelda Lambkin, National Director for Horizon 2020, said “the latest results showcase Ireland’s growing leadership in collaborative research, development and innovation projects, with new projects in sectors such as Agri-Food, Energy, Electronics, Information and Communication Technologies. Successes range from companies such as OPENHYDRO GROUP, EIRECOMPOSITES TEORANTA and SCHWUNDGRAD ENERGIE in Fast Track to Innovation, to TEAGASC, UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK and UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK in co-funding programmes to develop the next generation of research leaders’’.