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Global Citizens 2030 - Ireland’s Talent and Innovation Strategy
From Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
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Global Citizens 2030 is Ireland’s new Talent and Innovation Strategy. It sets out Ireland’s ambitions to embed excellence in talent and innovation into Ireland’s global footprint and is the first international strategy to encompass the breadth of tertiary education, and research and innovation systems.
It builds upon Ireland’s many achievements over the past decade and is intended to confirm Ireland’s place as a first choice destination for international talent and as a thought leader in education, research, innovation and science policy.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris T.D., launched the strategy on Monday 15 January 2024.
Global Citizens 2030 Ireland’s International Talent and Innovation Strategy
Enhancing Ireland’s global influence through excellence and inclusion in talent and innovation
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Global Citizens 2030 is made up of six pillars:
Pillar One: Talent and Innovation at the heart of Ireland’s global footprint
Pillar Two: A first choice destination for international learners, researchers and innovators
Pillar Three: Global citizens in multi-national, multi-cultural and diverse workforces
Pillar Four: Enhanced European influence in education and research
Pillar Five: A new era of collaboration on our Shared Island
Pillar Six: Thought leadership in talent, innovation and science policy
Two work programmes will guide implementation of the strategy. The strategy document contains the first work programme, which will last until 2026.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, working with the Department of Foreign Affairs, will appoint six Talent and Innovation Attachés in Ireland House locations in priority regions by 2030.
The Department will launch and implementation the International Education Mark, a statutory quality mark intended to promote public confidence in the quality of Irish providers delivering programmes of education to international learners.
The Department will further support our higher education institutions to continue to deepen their engagement in the European Universities Alliance, a network of universities across Europe which aim to boost the excellence dimension of higher education, research and innovation, while promoting gender equality, inclusiveness, and equity.
Innovate for Ireland is an ambitious partnership between industry and the government to attract high calibre PhD students to undertake research and innovation in Ireland, and will be a key part of the DFHERIS value proposition in priority locations. It will foster a global perspective to tackle national and global grand challenges such as climate change and climate adaptation, global health and pandemics, water poverty, digital society, cyber-security and others.
Ireland will take up the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2026. This presents an unparalleled opportunity to promote Ireland’s own initiatives and to lead the European education, skills, research, innovation and science agendas. Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union in 2026 will include the negotiations on key policy instruments such as Erasmus +, Horizon Europe and European Social Fund +.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science will engage with the Department of Education in London to examine the feasibility of Shared Island mobility and exchange programmes between Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, based on an inclusive exchange programme for learners, staff, researchers and innovators of institutions in Ireland and the UK.
The establishment of DFHERIS underpins the government’s commitment to position Ireland as a leading knowledge economy with a talent and innovation focus. Under Global Citizen’s the Department will develop research programme for talent and innovation policies in small advanced economies and Review Irish membership of international research and scientific organisations to ensure return on investment and maximise benefits for Irish researchers and innovators.
The Department will establish the Global Citizens 2030 Implementation Forum to support implementation of the strategy.
The Global Citizens 2030 Implementation Forum will act as an information-sharing forum for stakeholders, which will strengthen the Government’s insight into factors and trends on internationalisation in Ireland’s tertiary education system. It will work towards positioning Talent and Innovation as a key enabler of addressing national challenges and informing public policy and practice across the whole-of-government.
The Forum will also contribute to work on improving the evidence base of the impact of internationalisation of Talent and Innovation on the economy, tertiary education and the labour market, ensuring that Global Citizens 2030 priorities best reflect Ireland’s national agenda.
It will be chaired by the Assistant Secretary of the Research and Innovation Division at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) and stakeholders will be invited to become members. The Secretariat for the Forum will be provided by the International Cooperation Unit at DFHERIS.
The forum will be effective from 2024 and be ongoing until the end of the term of the strategy.