Sir, – At a recent meeting of the Fellows of Trinity College Dublin on Wednesday, June 17th, we voted overwhelmingly to express our support for the spirit of the open letter recently signed by more than 2,400 researchers from all over Ireland concerning Research Ireland’s 2026-2030 strategy.
We believe it is in the public good to prioritise investigator-led research across all disciplines and career stages, as the foundation of Ireland’s research system. In a rapidly shifting geopolitical world, Ireland’s long-term economic and educational interests are best served by sustained investment in fundamental, internationally competitive research, rather than by a strategy weighted towards short-term industry priorities.
Most concretely, we urge the Minister for Further and Higher Education, James Lawless, to reconsider the proposed dismantling of the current centralised PhD scholarship and postdoctoral fellowship programmes. These programmes, built on open international competition and independent peer review, represent a successful and internationally admired feature of the Irish research system, and one not easily rebuilt once lost.
We welcome the current public discussion as a healthy process, and one that can help secure the best outcome for our universities, our researchers, the economy and the country. – Yours, etc,
RM Block
Cliona O’Farrelly PhD, FTCD,
Chair of Fellows,
(on behalf of The Fellows of Trinity College Dublin)
Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute,
Dublin 2
