Joseph HeinrichSoftware engineer
← All Side Quests
Oct 19, 2026Data

When the Work Begins

See how Ireland’s science grants changed in size, length, and destination.

Try the project ↓
How to use this project

Help

How to explore

Science Foundation Ireland funded research and related work before it became part of Research Ireland in 2024. This project compares the current value and dates attached to grant records; it does not measure annual spending or research results.

  1. Start with 2024

    Open the 2024 cohort and compare its positive commitments with the negative adjustments recorded in the same start year.

  2. Move through the years

    Choose a start year and switch between net current commitment and number of records.

  3. Follow a programme

    Select a programme, then a research body, to carry both choices into the final view.

  4. Compare size and length

    Read each positive record from left to right for current value and bottom to top for duration.

Current total commitment
The full value now attached to a grant record, which is not the same as money paid in its start year.
Start year
The calendar year in which the register says a grant began.
Research body
The organization named on the award, such as a university or research institute.
Negative adjustment
A record with a value below zero in the source register; it reduces the net total and is shown separately from positive commitments.
Net current commitment
Positive commitment values plus negative adjustments for the selected group.
Side Quest / DataOpen the 2024 cohort, compare all 24 start years, choose a programme and research body, then filter the linked record view by duration.

Irish science funding · 2001–2024

When the work begins

See how Ireland’s science grants changed in size, length, and destination.

Science Foundation Ireland supported research and related work before it became part of Research Ireland in 2024. This project follows the current value attached to each grant record, not money spent in a calendar year.

SFI · START-YEAR SHEET2024
Records starting
308
Positive commitments
€204.8m
Median positive record
€200k
Negative adjustments
11

Values are the register’s current total commitments. They are not annual spending.

CURRENT RECORD
01 · Choose a start year

Start with the year on the grant record.

Each column groups records by start date. Change the year or measurement to update every view below.

Measure the start-year columns by
Selected start year2024
Records starting in 2024308297 positive · 11 negative
Positive commitments€204.8mFull current values, not yearly payments
Negative adjustments−€2.1mShown separately, then included in net
Net current commitment€202.8mPositive values plus negative adjustments
02 · Compare programmes

Different programmes make a different year.

The ten leading programmes for 2024 use the measurement above. Choose a row to carry one programme into the research-body and record views.

03 · Follow the destination

See which organization received the recorded commitment.

These are the twelve leading research bodies for all programmes in 2024. Choose one to narrow the final view.

A research body is the organization named on the award. It does not show every partner, researcher, or place affected by the work.

04 · Read size and length

Each dot is one positive grant record.

Read left to right for current commitment and bottom to top for recorded duration. The value scale expands small amounts and compresses large ones so both remain visible.

Start year2024
ProgrammeAll programmes
Research bodyAll research bodies
Show records by duration
What this can and cannot show

A commitment record describes a promise on paper, not the results of the work.

The register can compare recorded values, dates, programmes, and research bodies. It cannot show annual payments, research quality, staffing, partners, outputs, impact, or why a funding decision was made.

The source includes 7,269 rows. This project uses 7,267: it excludes one record starting after 2024 and one record whose end date precedes its start date. Applicant names, proposal titles, proposal IDs, ORCID identifiers, and organization identifiers are not included in the published snapshot.

I found the Science Foundation Ireland grant register through the allowlisted TidyTuesday catalog, then verified the official Irish open-data record, Research Ireland publisher, explanatory metadata, historical scope, and CC BY 4.0 license on October 19, 2026. A deterministic reducer pins the exact curated CSV by commit, byte count, and SHA-256 before removing personal and proposal-level text and creating the static browser snapshot.

Why this exists

The question

How did the current value and recorded duration of Science Foundation Ireland grant commitments vary by start year, programme, and research body from 2001 through 2024?

What to try

Open the 2024 cohort, compare all 24 start years, choose a programme and research body, then filter the linked record view by duration.

Method and limits

About the data

I discovered the Science Foundation Ireland grant register in the allowlisted TidyTuesday catalog and followed it to the official Irish open-data record and explanatory metadata. Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland publishes the historical register under CC BY 4.0. It covers Science Foundation Ireland commitments from the organization’s founding through its July 2024 merger with the Irish Research Council.

The reproducible standard-library Python builder downloads the exact TidyTuesday CSV at commit `bb24566e57c7ac138650b23d8183ae31d351f817`. It verifies the 1,934,366-byte source against SHA-256 `417b7ed1c49be76e767f3f3a413ccd9d9cb33eacda25494d16946e35399b9064`, then checks the exact schema, 7,269 unique proposal IDs, funder, date parsing, commitment bounds, and positive and negative record counts. The analysis keeps 7,267 records whose start dates fall from 2001 through 2024 and whose end dates do not precede their start dates. It excludes one record starting in 2025 and one record with reversed date order.

The 242,117-byte static snapshot has SHA-256 `6dfb949e2829387379c35e7118890ad6ff2dbd54f77a7280e3e0e496e7eae570`. It contains start year, end year, duration in months, programme, research body, and current total commitment. It omits proposal IDs, applicant names, ORCID identifiers, proposal titles, ROR identifiers, and sub-programme text. The page imports the snapshot and makes no runtime request.

Values are grouped by the year in which a record starts. Positive commitments and negative adjustments are shown separately, then added for the net current commitment. That grouping does not describe annual expenditure, cash flow, or the year in which money was paid. Recorded duration is the difference between the source start and end dates. The register does not establish research quality, staffing, partnerships, outputs, impact, value for money, or the reason for an award or adjustment.

Skills used

  • Data analysis
  • Data engineering
  • Statistical reasoning
  • Visualization
  • Information design
  • Interaction design
  • Visual design
  • Creative coding
  • Product thinking
  • Editorial storytelling
  • Accessibility
  • Performance
  • Systems design

What the data shows

  1. The 2024 cohort contains 308 records: 297 positive commitments totaling €204.8 million and 11 negative adjustments totaling −€2.1 million. The resulting €202.8 million is a net current value, not 2024 spending.
  2. Frontiers for the Future is the largest 2024 programme by net current commitment at €52.5 million across 66 records. Programme totals describe the register now and do not show when payments occurred.
  3. Trinity College Dublin has the largest 2024 net current commitment at €49.2 million across 41 records, followed by University College Dublin at €35.8 million across 58 records. The named research body does not show every partner or place affected by the work.
  4. The 2019 cohort has the largest net current commitment in the 2001–2024 series at €468.8 million across 303 records. Six Research Centres Programme records account for €231.4 million of that current total.

Sources

Data Science Learning Community · Underlying dataset: CC BY 4.0Science Foundation Ireland Grants Commitments — TidyTuesday snapshot ↗Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland · CC BY 4.0Science Foundation Ireland Grants Commitments ↗Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland · CC BY 4.0Science Foundation Ireland Grant Commitments Metadata ↗