The future of funding for fundamental sciences

Panel event to discuss the future of funding for fundamental scientific research in Ireland. 

Organised by the Academy’s Physical, Chemical and Mathematical Sciences Committee, this lunchtime panel event aims to showcase the value of theoretical and fundamental scientific research and to highlight the research funding required to support the development of a flourishing fundamental scientific research ecosystem in Ireland within a broader international context. Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, past president of the European Research Council, will deliver the keynote address reflecting on his research career and his experience at the head of an international research funding body. 

Following the keynote, Professor Bourguignon will be joined by a panel of expert speakers for a discussion moderated by Professor Sinéad Ryan, Trinity College Dublin. The panel discussion will address the research funding gap that fundamental research has experienced for over a decade in Ireland and will advocate for the need to increase such funding across all levels in academia, from supporting individual researchers at early and mid-career stages to supporting centres of excellence and the work of more advanced researchers.

The event will be aimed at researchers, research funders and policy makers and hopes to stimulate a discussion about the future of funding for fundamental research in Ireland.

Provisional Programme

1:30-2:00 Registrations

2:00-2:10 Welcome and opening remarks

2:10-2:30 Keynote: Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Nicolaas Kuiper Honorary Professor, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHES)

2:30-3:30 Response Panel chaired by Sinéad Ryan, Professor of Theoretical High Energy Physics, Trinity College Dublin

Panellists

• Samson Shatashvili MRIA, University Chair of Natural Philosophy (1847), Trinity College Dublin
• Dr Fiona Killard-Lynch, Director of Research and Innovation, National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training
• Dr Spyridon Dendrinos, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, University College Cork
• Luke Drury MRIA, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

3:30-4:30 Networking and refreshments

Queries

If you have queries relating to this event, contact Fionnuala Parfrey by email: f.parfrey@ria.ie

Access requirements

Have you got any access requirements that we can assist you with, so that you can fully engage with our event? Please let us know by contacting our access officer in advance of the event by email: accessofficer@ria.ie