Celtic Academies Alliance

 The Celtic Academies Alliance aims to promote cooperation and collaboration between the three national academies to inform public policy and strengthen understanding of shared challenges.

On this page:

Members
Objectives
Recent activities

Mission

The Celtic Academies Alliance unites the Learned Society of Wales (LSW), the Royal Irish Academy (RIA), and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) to promote collaboration and strengthen cross-national understanding within the UK and Ireland. Together, the Celtic Academies Alliance leverages the collective expertise of these national academies to inform public policy, advance multidisciplinary research, and address shared challenges across four nations. The Alliance operates on three foundational pillars – awarding grants, sharing resources and expertise, and delivering collaborative activities with measurable impact – ensuring sustained influence and mutual benefit for each academy and the communities within which it sits.

Members

  • Learned Society of Wales (LSW)

  • The Royal Irish Academy (RIA)

  • The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)

Objectives

Provide independent expert advice on higher education, research matters, and other key issues.

Support the continuing development of effective governance frameworks within the UK and between the UK and Ireland as a result of the UK leaving the EU, ensuring clarity around the roles and positions of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland on the international stage. Promote collective opportunities to ensure recognition by UK and Irish governments of the Alliance’s strength and impact.

Establish joint activities that are strategically aligned with each organisation’s core priorities, ensuring they are fully resourced and integrated within a clear, coordinated work plan. In order to achieve these, the partnership is built on three foundational pillars: securing grants, leveraging shared resources and expertise, and engaging in collaborative activities that deliver measurable outcomes.

  • Pillar 1: Awarding grants

    Facilitate bilateral or trilateral grants in areas of mutual interest, especially those involving transdisciplinary work across the sciences, arts and humanities, leveraging the unique advantages of all three organisations being both national, and multidisciplinary, academies.  

  • Pillar 2: Leveraging shared resources and expertise

    Encourage sharing of resources and expertise, including engaging Fellows from each organisation to bring external and international perspectives to panels, reviews, and strategic tasks. 

    Promote the exchange of knowledge, best practices, and operational methods among staff and committees to strengthen our collective role as national academies. 

  • Pillar 3: Collaborative activities with clear outcomes

    Prioritise collaborative activities with clear, external outcomes, such as joint events, reports, and public engagements. These activities will highlight the significant contributions of Irish, Welsh, and Scottish research in addressing both local and global challenges, enriching the international research landscape through unique perspectives and expertise.

    Commit to delivering at least one flagship event or major activity annually. This signature initiative will serve to raise the Alliance’s profile, provide visibility for impactful research, and strengthen engagement with stakeholders, ensuring that the Alliance’s work is balanced between high-profile activities and ongoing or smaller-scale engagements.

National Academies unite under new Celtic partnership

January 2026

Celtic Academies Alliance launches formal partnership to tackle shared challenges, pooling resources and the collective expertise of the academies’ Fellows.

Read more

Alliance activities

  • Events
    Research and innovation culture conference

    Research and innovation culture conference

    Exploring how our research environments converge and differ in devolved nations and how might we learn from each other and work together.

  • Advice Papers
    Unlocking fiscal autonomy: The evolution of devolved taxation

    Unlocking fiscal autonomy: The evolution of devolved taxation

    The Celtic Academies Alliance facilitated a discussion on the origins of devolved taxes and the extent to which new fiscal powers have been deployed by each administration.

  • Advice Papers
    Research bureaucracy

    Research bureaucracy

    RSE response to the independent review of research bureaucracy, prepared by a working group of the Celtic Academies Alliance.

  • Advice Papers
    Developing the UK’s R&D Roadmap

    Developing the UK’s R&D Roadmap

    The RSE, in partnership with the Learned Society of Wales (LSW), Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Foundation for Science and Technology (FST), hosted an online roundtable in October. It discussed how the devolved nations can continue to build their research base and capacity, foster innovation and engage with the opportunities arising from the 2020 UK R&D Roadmap.

  • Advice Papers
    Devolved Academies on the R&D roadmap

    Devolved Academies on the R&D roadmap

    The RSE, Learned Society of Wales and Royal Irish Academy have written jointly regarding the Devolved Academies on the R&D Roadmap.