Royal Irish Academy

Irish institution founded in Dublin in 1785 to promote academic endeavour across all fields of scholarship, including the sciences. It carries out extensive publication of academic papers and holds frequent meetings for the presentation of new research in the sciences and humanities. The Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy have been published since 1787. The academy has no laboratories, but has funded scientific research in the past, and offers annual research fellowships in all disciplines. Originally housed at 115 Grafton Street, Dublin, it moved to its present location in Dawson Street in 1851.

The RIA was established at a time when similar scholarly bodies were being formed in other cities. Its founders, led by the Earl of Charlemont, believed that it was in the national interest to have an institution that provided a meeting ground where all branches of learning might be pursued. Its motto is ‘We will endeavour’.

The academy is divided into national committees that pursue scholarly study in areas as varied as archaeology, philosophy, biochemistry, and Irish antiquities. It organizes international meetings and negotiates for Ireland with similar institutions overseas, assisting in international exchange programmes. It also elects distinguished foreign scientists and academics to honorary membership of the academy, a list which includes the German-born US physicist Albert Einstein, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr, and German physicist Max Planck.