I have significantly expanded pharmacy education capacity to support health workforce needs, with 120 additional pharmacy places introduced nationally across 2025–2026 through new and expanded programmes.
The new five-year Master of Pharmacy programme at South East Technological University (SETU) will commence from September 2026, following accreditation by the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, making this the first pharmacy degree in the South East. Applications are now open through the CAO, and SETU expect to have an initial intake for this course of around 35 students from 2026 at SETU Waterford campus. Pharmacy education expansion has been delivered on a nationally coordinated basis, with experiential learning placements and clinical placements managed through Affiliation for Pharmacy Practice Experiential Learning (APPEL), which currently manages placements for programmes at University College Cork, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Trinity College Dublin; and supported by ongoing engagement between my Department, the HEA, the Department of Health and the HSE.
In terms of funding , under Phase One of the new INSPIRE Research Infrastructure Programme, eligible higher education institutions can make a submission for research equipment that is used routinely within a higher education institution for both teaching and research purposes. The call for Phase One has opened. In building progressively and strategically on Phase One, it is intended that Phase Two will open in 2027 for shared advanced infrastructures, i.e., bigger-ticket equipment that is appropriately shared across a number of institutions and, critically, with external users. While funding research equipment, INSPIRE is a strategic investment in Ireland’s talent and innovation, and is open to all disciplines.
TU RISE will support research capacity building with a focus on enhancing engagement with regional enterprises. This includes increasing researcher human capital in research areas that have potential to facilitate stronger engagement with regional enterprises aligned to Ireland’s Smart Specialisation Strategy and Regional Enterprise Plans. SETU have received €13.6 million through TU RISE for an agreed work programme, which includes the recruitment of 10 PhD and 10 Post-doctoral researchers over the lifetime of the project.
SETU and UCC have also each, and together as part of research consortia, had impressive success in winning competitive funding for research under the Horizon Europe and EU4Health Programmes. UCC has also won significant funding through ERC grants and awards.
Research Ireland invests across all disciplines including pharmacy and healthcare. The agency has many programmes which are accessible to SETU and UCC, as they are both Research Ireland eligible research bodies. A list of available programmes is in the recently published Research Ireland Programme Plan 2026. These programmes are well aligned with pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences researchers, including clinical research, health services, biopharma, and public health. These include individual-led programmes such as Investigators, Frontier for the Future and Pathway, all of which are open to individual pharmacy researchers, at early, mid and advanced researcher level which can involve collaborations with relevant stakeholders including hospitals. Encouraging collaborations is a key part of Research Ireland’s new strategy, strengthening connections between research excellence, academic engagement with enterprise and industry, and regional impact.
