HRB (Health Research Board Ireland)

Funds Irish health research through grants and capability-building support for investigators, institutions, and clinical programs.

The Health Research Board (HRB) is Ireland's principal public funder of health research. It is a statutory body with a budget of about €50 million a year, and it supports work that is meant to advance health and social care policy, clinical practice and patient outcomes across Ireland, including cross-border collaboration where it matters.

Its portfolio covers investigator-led projects, clinical trials, fellowships, applied partnership awards, data analysis, conference sponsorship and the US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership. The current program set includes Investigator-Led Projects, clinical trials, applied partnership awards, collaborative postdoctoral fellowships, secondary data analysis, research in-practice fellowships, summer student scholarships and the National PPI Ignite Network, with awards ranging from a few thousand euros for events to more than €1.3 million for clinical trials and larger network grants.

Applications run through the GEMS portal and are organized around recurring annual or rolling calls, many with spring or autumn deadlines. HRB's current strategy puts people at the center of the system, with emphasis on ethics, public and patient involvement, clinical trial capacity and evidence that can move from research into practice.