Dr Elena Martines
Scientific programme manager, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Dr Fiona Blighe
Scientific programme manager, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
Science Foundation Ireland is the government agency responsible for funding cutting edge research in STEM. Also it is responsible for supporting education and public engagement with SFI women in STEM.
Securing research funding to discover new knowledge is a very important aspect of the career of most researchers. Currently 22% of SFI’s grants are held by women, a percentage comparable with funders worldwide. SFI has made it a priority to increase this number. It plans to do so by by supporting women at every stage of their career in STEM. Examples of such polices include:
- The Smart Futures programme. This provides STEM career information to second-level students and strives to portray STEM careers as an attractive option. For male and female students alike, we do this by providing positive role models for women in STEM.
- SFI provides a maternity allowance for our researchers and women in STEM
- SFI have incentivised Irish Higher Education Institutes to submit more applications from women. These applications are to our flag ship early career programme, the Starting Investigator Grant
- Similarly SFI ask the international experts who evaluate applications to consider career breaks and periods of part-time work. When assessing an applicants’ productivity over a timeframe these must be taken into account.
- SFI also have an organisation wide target of securing a minimum 30% female reviewers as part of any evaluation panel
- SFI are constantly benchmarking ourselves against international best practice and are always searching for new and innovative ways to further retain and support women in research
Finally, for more information on what Science Foundation Ireland has put in place to support SFI women in STEM in Ireland is available through the “Science Foundation Ireland Women in Science” webpage.