Employment-Based Postgraduate Programme

Important Notice: The Employment-based Programme will not open for the 2025 call.  To receive emails about upcoming funding programmes please sign up for our alerts here Subscribe Now – Research Ireland

 

Overview

The Irish Research Council’s Employment-Based Postgraduate Programme is a unique national initiative linking excellent researchers in all disciplines with workplace experience in an employment partner; ranging from multinational corporations to SMEs, public-sector agencies and, where justified, non-governmental organisations. The scheme provides awardees with the opportunity to pursue research in collaboration with a higher education institution while based in, and employed by, their employment partner.

Through this co-funded programme, postgraduate researchers develop new, advanced knowledge and skills in an industry or employer workplace setting. The programme trains early-career researchers for the diversity of employment opportunities in industry, the public sector and the non-government sectors. For employers, the scheme brings new talent directly into the organisation and provides a low-risk cost-effective route to research development and innovation in an area closely aligned with its strategic interests.

With consideration to national and global challenges, the involvement of those organisations, both large and small, who seek technological, social and sustainable solutions and opportunities for people and planet is welcomed.

Information for applicants

The award will support suitably qualified research master’s and doctoral candidates pursuing, or intending to pursue, full-time research in any discipline. The duration of these awards ranges from one to four years.

For the period of the award, the awardee will have dual status as an employee of the employment partner and a postgraduate student at their host institution. Most applicants will not be employees of the employment partner at the time of application, however existing employees are also eligible to apply.

Awards will comprise:

• a contribution of €22,000  to the awardee’s employment costs;
• a contribution to fees, including non-EU fees, up to a maximum of €5,750 per annum; and;
• eligible direct research expenses of €3,250 per annum.

The logos below represent some enterprise partners that have expressed an interest in supporting researchers under this scheme. Their contact details can be found to the right of this page.

Information for employment partners

• An employment partner can be a company, registered charity, social, cultural or not-for-profit civic organisation, state-owned enterprise or an eligible public body* that will co-fund the researcher for the duration of the award.
• The employment partner is expected to commit a minimum of €10,000 per annum towards the cost of funding the researcher.
• The employment partner should be based in the Republic of Ireland and have suitable facilities to host and mentor the researcher.
• The employment partner must be willing to employ the researcher for the duration of the award.
• If your organisation would like to feature on this page in order to attract researchers, please send your details to schemes@research.ie.

How to apply

Potential applicants should read the 2025 Call Document (coming soon) carefully to ascertain whether or not they are eligible to apply. Indicative versions of the applicant, academic supervisor and employment mentor forms are provided for information purposes only. All participants must create and submit their forms via the online system.

 

Key dates

If you do not find the answer to your query in the call documentation, you should contact the research office in your proposed institution which will provide information and clarification on the call. Research offices can send any queries they are unable to clarify to schemes@research.ie.