Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions
Encyclopedia
The Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) is an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 programme that provides integrated financial support for institutional strategies, programmes and infrastructure and ensures that institutions have the capacity and incentives to formulate and implement research strategies, which will give them critical mass and world level capacity in key areas of research. The Programme supports research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...

 in humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

, such as business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

 and law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

.

Launch

The programme was launched in 1998 following the success of a pilot programme in science and technology.

Funding

Up to the end of 2006, €605 million has been allocated to third level institutions under this competitive programme for research. Substantial funding has been also been provided from private philanthropic sources who have supported the strategic focus and competitive basis of the programme.

In August 2007, the Minister for Education and Science announced the allocation of funding under PRTLI Cycle four (PRTLI 4). Approximately €230 million was allocated for major research initiatives in fifteen higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

 institutions. This funding provides for workspace and researcher funding including 200 postgraduates, 100 postdocs, 50 principal investigators and 60 support staff.

Objectives

In general the objectives of the programme are:
  • To enable a strategic and planned approach by third-level institutions to the long-term development of their research capabilities, consistent with their existing and developing research strengths and capabilities.

  • To promote the development of high quality research capabilities in third-level institutions, so as to enhance the quality and relevance of graduate output and skills.

  • Within the framework of these objectives, to provide support for outstandingly talented individual researchers and teams within institutions and the encouragement of co-operation between researchers both within the institutions and between institutions having particular regard to the desirability of encouraging inter-institutional co-operation within the two parts of the binary system and within Ireland, the EU and internationally.

Judging panel

The PRTLI awards have been evaluated by an international panel of distinguished researchers and scholars on the basis of excellence in:
  • Strategic planning and focus
  • Inter-institutional collaboration
  • Research quality
  • Impact of research on teaching and learning

Recent developments

As of April 2010, the Irish Government has not made any announcements of a PRTLI cycle 5 and has given no firm indication of its future intentions with regard to support for research in Third Level Institutions.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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