To enhance Ireland’s status as a knowledge-based economy, we must achieve a gender balance by mobilising Ireland’s pool of female researchers.
Funding of up to €175,000 per project
This is the view put forward by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). As a result, SFI are offering female researchers funding of up to €175,000 per project. This is as part of its Advance Award programme.
The SFI’s fund aims to attract greater female participation in STEM subjects: science, technology, engineering and maths. Currently, just over one-quarter of the researchers in STEM-related R&D in Ireland are female.
“SFI are committed to supporting and enabling excellent scientific research that has potential economic and societal impact in Ireland. For this reason, it is crucial that the STEM sector has programmes such as the Advance Award that incentivise diversity and gender-balance within the Irish private and public research system.
“We anticipate that this programme will help improve women researchers’ employability in the industrial STEM sector in Ireland and abroad,” said Professor Mark Ferguson, Director-General of Science Foundation Ireland.
“This programme will allow women researchers to immediately avail of established infrastructures and existent industry partnerships and collaborations – as well as offering assistance to move into a non-academic career path in the STEM sector.
“The successful applicants will certainly add to the expertise and capacity needed in the sector in Ireland as we begin to coordinate efforts to apply for funding programmes such as the Horizon 2020 framework.”
Eligibility
In order to be eligible for the Advance Award programme female applicants must hold a PhD, MD or equivalent qualification. In addition, they should not hold or have held a significant, independent research award of greater than one-year’s duration.
The deadline for submissions of expressions of interest is 28 March 2014, with the final deadline for applications set for 23 May 2014.
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