What can I do?
Thanks to our panel and all who joined us today at Trinity College Dublin (both online and in-person) where we discussed how the proposed Research and Innovation Bill, 2023 presents a bold opportunity for the Government to show how "Ireland backs the future".
We also shared some information on how we all can do our bit to help and ensure that Ireland is the best place to do research.
Here's how:
We have a chance - indeed an obligation - to shape the research landscape. We need to engage in small actions to signal our belief in promoting a new Research Agency that is:
Fair
Balance the focus between early and later career
Balance the focus between AHSS and STEM
An Agency governed by researchers
Funded
Move from 1.2% of GDP to the EU average of 2.3%
Frontiers-focussed
Protect and enhance bottom-up, fundamental research
Protect and enhance critical perspectives and theoretical scholarship
Can you do any of these things to show our politicians the 3Fs?
Get to 3,000: ask a colleague in another higher ed. institution to sign the Open Letter [https://www.change.org/p/research-and-innovation-bill-2023-open-letter-to-minister-simon-harris
Tell them why the sky is blue: Tweet yourself doing the Blue Skies experiment (it will be funny and give a human face to this message!) [1 minute video link will be emailed]
Represent your discipline: to the editor of an Irish newspaper with the meaning of the 3Fs for your discipline
Get us to Denmark: We do very well with ERC starter grants, but we move closer to the regression line as we go from Starter to Consolidator to Advanced. We should be up with Denmark, but we are pulling in about half of what Denmark manages, despite same size population our higher GDP per capita. Graph here
Go Local: please email a LOCAL journalist/podcaster/radio presenter and ask them to interview you, or write an op-ed for them. Local news is incredibly influential, especially local news outlets in other countries.
Bring us to the top: Write a short email to your TD, asking for the 3Fs.