Advocacy

Health research charities play a fundamental role in society, occupying a space at the interface of the health research community and the public. Together our members represent over 2 million Irish people. They work relentlessly to improve the lives of the people they represent through research.

HRCIs role as an umbrella organisation makes us perfectly placed to understand the role and needs of our members. We use this knowledge to advocate for improvements to the Irish health research environment, through working with our members, researchers, policy makers, politicians and many other stakeholders.

Some examples of our advocacy activities include:

• Our annual position papers. See our HRCI Position Paper 2025
• Addressing many health research topic of national importance through our management of the Irish Health Research Forum, including data protection, the interface of health services and academia and genomics research. 
• Persistently advocating for increased public and patient involvement (PPI) in health research. In 2014, through the Irish Health Research Forum, we held the first national event on this topic. We have since worked with many partners, to increase and improve PPI in Ireland. Since 2023, we have been a national partner on the National PPI Ignite Network.
• Submissions to relevant consultations. See our submission to a consultation on a National Research and Innovation Strategy 2021–27 and our response to the Sinn Fein Priorities for Change in Health and Social Care 2023.
• Multiple avenues of work to improve the lives of people living with rare diseases through research, including hosting two Rare Disease Forum events.