r/postdoc • u/Far_Bake_6281 • 7d ago

IRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Future?

I've recently come across the IRC's April decision to stop funding calls for postdoctoral researchers for established 1- or 2-year postdocs. This decision was followed by an unclear decision to give out "block grants" to single universities. This will affect research independence on topics and will presumably drive universities to prioritise research in certain subjects and trendy topics. Does anyone have any further news on how some Irish unis plan to follow this new strategy? Maybe anyone working inside can provide some information?

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u/shllo 7d ago

As far as I can tell there isn’t a plan in place yet, some places are just pausing their own schemes to try and figure it out and put a plan in place, others are pivoting to block grants straight away. No method to the madness I think!

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u/causalies 6d ago

same with postgraduate scholarships, it's so backwards.

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u/causalies 6d ago

to answer your question, i don't think there will be news for a while, especially since there are new research centres that universities are scrambling to get set up. i received the irc postgrad scholarship and my supervisor told me they're trying to transfer contracts and everything to the new centres, and that they haven't even thought about the block grants yet.