For doctoral students in Ireland, the future looks bleak. The Irish Independent and ScienceInsider reported last week that close to 1000 postdoctoral and PhD posts may be at risk in the next two years. The figures came from internal forecasts produced in May by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a government funding agency, after it learned of budget cuts last December.

Graham Love, director of policy and communications at SFI, provides a little more meat on the bones of these reports. SFI had expected €190 million for 2010, but received only €150 million in its budget. (Last year, it got €165 million). As a result – with various research grants expiring and not being replaced, as well as new ones not being offered – it projects that it will shed up to 600 people from its funding system this year, out of a total of around 3000. Around a third of those losing SFI support will be tenured academics, around a third those who would have been doing PhDs, and another third postdoctoral students or research assistants.

SFI doesn’t know what it’s getting in 2011 – the agency is used to multi-year forecasting but has had to give that up in current economic times – but if it gets another static €150 million budget, it will likely cut another 350 posts.

The agency has decided to maintain its multi-year awards and existing support for large research centres, and mostly ditch smaller projects, says Love, a strategy he refers to as “temporary”, in the hope of better funding. Normally it would reserve 70% of its funding for supporting existing contracts, but this year that goes up to 90%. Just €10 million is available for new contracts this year.

At the moment, around 900 PhDs graduate each year in Ireland, says Love. The government wants to get that figure to 1200 per year, around double what it was four years ago when the policy was first set. But this target now looks unlikely.