Innovate for Ireland Programme
Closed
01 Jan 2025 / 19 Mar 2025
Innovate for Ireland’s key objective is to attract world leading research and entrepreneurship talent to Ireland to conduct advanced, multidisciplinary PhD research to address global sustainability challenges.
The Innovate for Ireland 2025 Programme is now open for applications, with two funding streams:
- Thematic Cohort stream – for applications to host a Cohort of iScholars working on research related to two specific thematic areas under the overall Innovate for Ireland Programme. See themes below.
- Industry Partnership stream – for applications to host one or more iScholars working on research related to any of the thematic areas (see below) under the overall Innovate for Ireland Programme.
For both streams, iScholars will participate in a common Entrepreneurial, Leadership & Innovation Programme, and in the Innovation Ecosystem. Under the Industry Partnership stream, the PhD Research Scholarship Programme may have greater involvement of an Industry Partner.
Thematic Cohort stream themes
| Primary thematic description | Sub-thematic areas | Programme thematic alignment (main themes) |
|---|---|---|
| Climate Change Mitigation |
|
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| Sustainable Aviation & Energy Transition | Topics regarding the policy, economic, and technology implications of aviation’s transition to a carbon constrained world. |
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Overall Programme themes
The overall Innovate for Ireland Programme supports research in the broad thematic areas of: Sustainable food and nutrition solutions; Clean tech, energy solutions and energy resilience; Impact of emerging digital technologies on human experiences; Deep tech and digital transformation; Digital technologies to resolve the challenges facing the natural world; Advanced green manufacturing – workplace of the future; Changing societies – adaptation in cities, communities, education, work and culture; Mitigating health impacts of climate change and pollution; Sustainable water, land use and natural resources management; Sustainable transport; Innovation in infrastructure; Green materials and the circular economy; New models of healthcare.
Innovate for Ireland is a unique global talent development programme, with the ambition to become one of the most transformational innovation and sustainability initiatives undertaken in Ireland in a generation. Innovate for Ireland is a Flagship Initiative of the Government’s Global Citizens 2030 strategy. Its objective is to achieve a step-change in Ireland’s innovation capability and develop solutions to global sustainability challenges through the recruitment and training of a global community of world-class researcher and innovators (the iScholars).
Over the next decade, it is envisioned that Innovate for Ireland will fund up to 1,200 doctoral scholarships with additional benefits, that will attract exceptional talent who may otherwise not have considered pursuing a PhD or, indeed, considered Ireland as a research destination for their doctoral studies. In order to deliver upon this vision, three pillars of activity will comprise the Programme, which all iScholars will participate in fully:
- PhD Research Scholarship Programme: iScholars will undertake advanced doctoral research at higher education institutions throughout Ireland that will deliver world class PhD training and supervision as part of agreed research projects to address global grand challenges.
- Entrepreneurial, Leadership & Innovation Programme: iScholars will undertake a world class, nationally delivered, multi-year, personal and professional development programme to equip them to thrive as entrepreneurial leaders who are catalysts for innovation and sustainable growth.
- Innovation Ecosystem: iScholars will participate in a cross-sectoral community of innovation leaders – building academic, professional and community networks that will amplify the impact of the Innovate for Ireland initiative. This will include an ambitious and vibrant cross-sectoral innovation network, including but not limited to an extensive range of informal learning activities such as mentorship and menteeship schemes, inspiration sessions, community activities, hackathons, cultural engagement, industry events and consultation groups, international conferences and awards programmes.
Innovate for Ireland will be delivered by Research Ireland and Global Innovators Ireland (GII), in partnership with academic and industry partners.
- The main eligibility requirements for Lead Applicants, Co-Applicants, Named Supervisors and Research Bodies are set out in the call document.
- The PhD students (iScholars) who are recruited to the programme will need to have entrepreneurial capacity and interest along with outstanding research ability and academic credibility. They also need to be passionate about sustainability. Their recruitment must incorporate a robust assessment of their entrepreneurial, leadership and innovation characteristics and capabilities, as well as their academic excellence.
- For the Industry Partnership stream, the participating Industry Partner must meet the requirements as set out in the call document.
- The iScholar projects must meet the following requirements:
- For applications to the Thematic Cohort stream, the iScholar projects must be within the focused thematic areas outlined above (Climate Change Mitigation, Sustainable Aviation & Energy Transition).
- For applications to the Industry Partnership stream, the iScholar projects may be within any of the Innovate for Ireland thematic areas.
An information webinar is available to view on YouTube:
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