According to Dr Maura Hiney, Head of Post Award and Evaluation at the HRB, 
‘This report highlights the impact and influence that HRB-funded researchers are having in relation to scientific dissemination, capacity-building, policy and clinical practice influences, and health sector and economic benefits. We are seeing clear increases evident across many metrics compared to the last 10 years.’ 

Key findings

In total 187 awards worth €47 million delivered:

  • 329 research-related posts
  • 849 peer reviewed publications, four-in-five of these were high impact and seven in ten of papers were published on open access journals
  • 187 policy and practice influences on policy and practice, including new clinical guidelines, improved treatment or service delivery and appointments as policy advisors
  • 10 patents 
  • Five licensed technologies and two start ups
  • 59 industry collaborations
  • 113 new research tools and methods, including diagnostics, new treatments, prognostic or ICT tools
  • €57 million funding leveraged on foot of these awards
Comparison to other years

The report also compares these outputs with the past ten years to identify trends where possible.

In line with the HRB’s strategic objective to ‘generate relevant knowledge and promote its application in policy and practice’ the report found a significant increase in engagement with policy makers, healthcare providers and decision-makers, patient groups and the public, as well as significant collaborations with these key target audiences. 

For the first time ever, the amount of additional research funding leveraged by HRB researchers exceeded the original HRB investment in their awards and reflects Irish health researchers increased success in securing funding from European funding programmes as well as other national and international ones.

Dr Maura Hiney continues,
‘The findings in this report will help inform HRB funding strategy and decisions relating to both new and existing funding initiatives. The evaluation helps us to understand whether the schemes we are investing in meet their scientific objectives and whether HRB-supported researchers are ensuring their research is applied in practice to deliver better health, better policy and better care.’