Governance

To us, good governance means being clear in our objectives, ethical and transparent in our dealings, accountable to our stakeholders and compliant with legal requirements. It is a way of working rather than a tick box exercise. It is about a commitment, from the Directors down, to operate in the best way at all times, for the benefit of all patients, member organisations and stakeholders.

As an umbrella organisation for other charities, it is particularly important that HRCI acts as a positive example in all aspects of governance. We have built the trust of our members and funders and we work hard to retain that trust.

Our Vision

Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI) is the national umbrella organisation of charities engaged in health, medical and social care research, collectively representing over 2 million people in Ireland. We champion our members’ interests to enhance the environment for health research in Ireland. We empower them to realise our shared vision of improving lives through impactful research.

Note: We define ‘health research’ to mean research focused on advancing knowledge about human health, wellbeing, illness, care, service provision and population health. We are directly responding to UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Good health and well-being.

Our Values

• We are ambitious and strive to continuously improve and innovate, to accomplish our vision of improving lives through impactful research.
• We are creative, resourceful and unafraid to challenge conventions when we believe there is a better way.
• We are open and transparent, acting with integrity in all our dealings.
• We are always guided in our actions by the needs of our member organisations and the people they serve.
• We value our colleagues and partners, treating each other with fairness, kindness and respect.
• We are collaborative in our approach and prioritise equity, inclusion, and dignity in all our relationships.

Overview of HRCI Governance

• In 2019 our Directors signed off on our compliance with the Charity Governance code and now review it on an annual basis. We are delighted to say that we meet all the core standards outlined in the code and are compliant to a level that would be expected of a charity many times our size.
• We undergo an independent financial audit on an annual basis.
• Our statutory financial statements are SORP compliant (in line with the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting and Reporting by Charities) and made publicly available on our website.
• In addition to our statutory Directors’ report, we produce in-depth and engaging annual reports, reviewing our achievements against our strategic goals.
• We have a strong HRCI Strategy 2024 -2027 that has been developed by the Directors and an organisational structure capable of implementing the plan.
• We are compliant with all relevant legislation including the Charities Act 2009, the Companies Act 2014, the Lobbying Act 2015, GDPR, employment legislation and equality legislation.
• We have many policies and controls in place to guide our operations. They can be broadly divided into financial and risk policies, HR policies, terms of reference, codes of practice, membership policies and a number of others including those relating to data protection and complaints/feedback.
• We provide detailed reports to our funders (Pobal and the HRB) and are very focused on how best to report our impact rather than simple outputs.