The HEA provides policy advice to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science across various aspects of the mission of higher education and supports the performance of the Irish higher education research system.

The core funding to the institutions: 

• Pays for the salaries of the academics who are therefore in a position to apply for competitive funding from national agencies & international programmes such as Horizon Europe; 
• Supports supervision of Masters and PhD students, i.e. Ireland’s pipeline of future researchers; 
• Provides the research support environment which facilitates the development of high quality research funding proposals and the effective management of competitive funding obtained; 
• Enables each institution to advance the higher interconnected activities of education and research within a higher education environment. 

The HEA’s policy advice on higher education research activity in Ireland is grounded in the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 (pdf) and the System Performance Framework (2023-2028) (pdf).

The framework was developed with the Higher Education Authority Act 2022 taken into context.

Delivery of this strategic objective links in strongly with the implementation of Impact 2030 Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy.