Ireland
Ireland – At the centre of global scientific and engineering research
In Ireland, we are focused on supporting a vibrant research system, characterised by excellence, impact, talent, collaboration and international engagement.
Ireland is building a reputation as a world leader in scientific research capability, continuously climbing the international citation and innovation rankings to a position of 10th place globally for overall scientific research quality. Ireland ranks in the top 5 in key disciplines such as Nanotechnology (1st), Animal and Dairy Science (2nd), Chemistry, Immunology, Materials Sciences, Agricultural Sciences (3rd in all) and Mathematics (4th).
Ireland is a small English-speaking, technologically-advanced country (population 4.5 million), home to leading multinational and indigenous companies, with a young, growing population. It is in the top centile of Eurostat rankings for Innovation Output.
Science Foundation Ireland, as the largest competitive research funder in Ireland, is committed to supporting excellent and impactful research. Science Foundation Ireland supports over 450 leading academic researchers across Ireland, with 4,000 team members, who are engaged in over 2,000 international academic collaboration across 62 countries.
Ireland provides an ideal location for researchers to access European Horizon 2020 programmes, European Research Council grants and international funding from charities and industry. Science Foundation Ireland works in partnership with many organisations including the Royal Society, The Wellcome Trust, the BBSRC, the US National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
The 12 SFI Research Centres, established through an investment of €355 million from Government and a further €190 million from industry partners, have over 300 collaborations with industry. These SFI Research Centres are focused on strategic areas of importance to Ireland, delivering scientific excellence with economic and societal impact in sectors such as Pharma, Big Data, Medical Devices, Nanotechnology/Materials, Marine Renewable Energy, Food for Health/Functional Foods, Perinatal Research, Applied Geosciences, Software, Digital Content and Telecommunications.
Science Foundation Ireland is focused on attracting emerging talent and leading established researchers to Ireland. The SFI Research Professorship Programme aims to attract world-leading researchers with exceptional reputations to Ireland by providing competitive research funding up to €5 million in direct costs. The SFI President of Ireland Future Research Leaders programme is designed to attract to Ireland outstanding new and emerging research leaders through 5 year awards of up to €1.25million.
If you are inspired to deliver excellent research with impact in a well-resourced and dynamic research environment, please consult www.sfi.ie or contact info@sfi.ie.
Research highlights
Early farmers picked goats for their pelts
27 May 2019
A precision oncology test for colorectal cancer
25 April 2019
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31 January 2019
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21 February 2018
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Tool that tallies engagement with new biomedical concepts seeks to reward novelty.
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19 January 2018
Dalmeet Singh Chawla
More countries are taking part in cross-border partnerships, but inequality remains.
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27 February 2017
Anthea Lacchia
Several factors can help institutions secure one of these sought-after grants.
1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020
Subject/journal group: All
The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for Ireland published between 1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.
Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.
Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.
Count | Share |
---|---|
484 | 134.29 |
Outputs by subject (FC)
Subject | Count | Share | |
---|---|---|---|
Earth & Environmental Sciences | 54 | 12.77 | |
Life Sciences | 156 | 39.09 | |
American Journal of Human Genetics | 3 | 0.06 | |
Cancer Research | 4 | 0.90 | |
Cell | 4 | 1.12 | |
Cell Host & Microbe | 2 | 0.19 | |
Cell Metabolism | 2 | 0.89 | |
Cell Stem Cell | 1 | 0.07 | |
Current Biology | 4 | 1.84 | |
Developmental Cell | 2 | 0.80 | |
Genome Research | 3 | 1.70 | |
Immunity | 2 | 0.65 | |
Journal of Biological Chemistry | 8 | 3.44 | |
Journal of Cell Biology | 1 | 1 | |
Journal of Experimental Medicine | 2 | 0.37 | |
Journal of Neuroscience | 7 | 3.58 | |
Molecular Cell | 3 | 0.23 | |
Molecular Psychiatry | 12 | 1.36 | |
Nature | 12 | 1.29 | |
Nature Biotechnology | 1 | 0.02 | |
Nature Cell Biology | 1 | 0.05 | |
Nature Communications | 25 | 4.65 | |
Nature Genetics | 2 | 0.01 | |
Nature Medicine | 4 | 1.15 | |
Neuron | 1 | 0.03 | |
PLOS Genetics | 1 | 0.10 | |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | 16 | 3.75 | |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 3 | 0.93 | |
Science | 6 | 0.77 | |
Science Advances | 9 | 2.46 | |
Science Translational Medicine | 3 | 0.73 | |
eLife | 12 | 4.99 | |
Physical Sciences | 221 | 48.20 | |
Chemistry | 95 | 43.84 |
1 December 2019 - 30 November 2020
View the connected world of international research collaboration. Visualize collaborations by subject or region.
Collaborations between countries
Percentage of collaboration by Share
Hover over the graph to view the percentage of collaboration.
Top 10 collaborators by Share
- Ireland
-
United States of America (USA) (97.48)
-
United Kingdom (UK) (89.94)
-
Germany (49.95)
-
Italy (27.63)
-
China (25.94)
-
Switzerland (23.86)
-
France (20.78)
-
Spain (17.78)
-
Netherlands (17.66)
-
Canada (16.42)
Collaboration is determined by the combined fractional count (Share) of Ireland and the collaborating country.
Top 10 institutions from Ireland
Institution | Count | Share | |
---|---|---|---|
1. | The University of Dublin | 174 | 50.59 |
2. | University College Dublin (UCD) | 175 | 21.01 |
3. | University College Cork (UCC) | 89 | 16.14 |
4. | University of Limerick (UL) | 34 | 12.07 |
5. | National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) | 47 | 9.61 |
6. | Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI), TCD | 26 | 9.49 |
7. | Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) | 24 | 7.77 |
8. | Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) | 50 | 6.89 |
9. | Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) | 27 | 4.82 |
10. | Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology (CSCB) | 6 | 4.13 |

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