The Minister for Trade and Commerce, Michael Ahern has announced a €4.8m research investment in Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) programmes which will make it easier for women to rise up the academic ranks.
Most of the investment goes to the SFI Principal Investigator Career Advancement Award (PICA), which provides assistance to academics undertaking research following maternity, adoptive, carers or parental leave.
Under the scheme, 10 researchers will receive a total of €4.3m in funding over a three-year period.
The balance of the investment, €503,000, is awarded to University College Cork (UCC), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University of Limerick (UL) under the separate SFI Institute Development Award.
This funding will enable the universities enhance the participation of women in science and engineering research activities through the establishment of long-term sustainable initiatives.
Minister Ahern said: "women represent a significant and relatively untapped resource from which many of these additional researchers can be recruited."
The latest European Commission Women in Science and Technology (WiST) report shows that despite the increasing number of female university graduates, female participation in research is low across the EU, representing just 18% in the private sector and 35% in the public sector.
