The Irish Research Council is to make €5 million in funding available to research projects aimed at tackling societal challenges this year.
Twelve projects will receive a total of €2.5 million in grants under the New Horizons Interdisciplinary Programme, which aims to fund researchers with mixed backgrounds to work on solving societal challenges.
€1.9m is to be allocated to 21 projects under the Research for Policy and Society initiative, which engages government departments and agencies in identifying policy topics for research.
A further €545,000 will be allocated to 28 award winners under the Engaging Civic Society section of the New Foundations programme, run in partnership with The Wheel.
Money will be also made available under the CAROLINE Programme which is co-funded by the EU, to provide mobility and career development fellowships for researchers who collaborate with NGOs or international organisations, and conduct research in a discipline of relevance to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for shared economic prosperity, social development and environmental protection.
The funding is a considerable boost in the area of societal challenges research, which has received €4.7 million in grants since 2012.
The Government's research strategy, Innovation 2020, published in 2015, committed to increasing the amount of money available for research in these areas.
Projects receiving funding will be expected to collaborate with government departments and agencies along with civic society organisations.
