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. Building on this Strategy, the Framework is currently being updated to Higher Education System Performance Framework (2023-2027). The new framework is being developed in the context of the HEA Act 2022, which sets out the role of the Framework, and associated Performance Agreements with institutions, in assessing and strengthening the performance and accountability of the higher education system. 

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

The Irish Research Council is an associated agency of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and operates under the aegis of the HEA. It provides competitive research funding to support excellent frontiers research across all disciplines and career stages. It has an emphasis on early-stage career researchers and promotes diverse career opportunities for researchers by partnering with employers. The Council also has an explicit role in supporting research with a societal focus and has established partnerships across Government and civic society.