Posted on 1 day ago by Laurentina Kennedy
Research Ireland and National Science Foundation sign new partnership
13 March 2025
Bilateral partnership to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, enhancing transatlantic enterprise engagement between academia and industry
Training programmes and early-career researcher supports to help deliver a diverse talent pipeline and a more connected research ecosystem between the two jurisdictions
Research Ireland and the National Science Foundation have today signed a new, five-year bilateral partnership that will create a unique international government-academia-enterprise partnership delivering world-leading research and strengthening industry-academic collaboration on both sides of the Atlantic.
Among the guiding principles of the partnership are that the NSF and Research Ireland will focus on the facilitation of excellent research and training activities; cooperate in the approach to design and implementation of merit (peer) review; avoid additional burden on proposers, reviewers, and funders; and carry out transparent proposal and review processes.
Signing the new partnership, Dr Sethuraman ‘Panch’ Panchanathan, Director of the National Science Foundation, commented:
“NSF is delighted to sign a partnership with Research Ireland, formalizing and fortifying a research bond that stretches back over two decades,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “We look forward to the partnership promoting knowledge transfer, innovation, and research and enterprise opportunities for both our countries across a range of priority sectors.”
Signing the partnership on behalf of Research Ireland, Deputy CEO, Dr Ciarán Seoighe, said:
“Ireland and the US have a long-standing and deep collaboration in research, development and innovation – one that is greatly valued. This new partnership signed here today builds upon that, and paves the way for the development of specific funding opportunities, coordinated peer review processes, joint conferences and workshops, staff exchanges to facilitate shared learning and develop dialogues, and alignment of larger investments, including collaboration on facilities.”
The new partnership follows an intensive series of workshops involving academics from US universities and Irish research institutions in October 2024.
Photo caption: Pictured today in Washington D.C. signing a new, five-year bilateral partnership between Research Ireland and the National Science Foundation were Deputy CEO of Research Ireland, Dr Ciarán Seoighe, and Director of the National Science Foundation, Dr Sethuraman ‘Panch’ Panchanathan.Image credit: John Harrington Photography 2025.