Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) commissioned Qualia Analytics to design and implement the Science in Ireland Barometer 2020 research. This study covers a range of topics on science perceptions and attitudes within the Irish public. This project included a consultative process with government stakeholders to design, deploy, collect, analyze, and report data from a geographically diverse, nationally representative sample of 1,200+ respondents across all 26 counties in Ireland. This survey-based research represents a novel repeated measures design that offers full-scale, methodologically robust and GDPR-compliant evidence comparing public perceptions at national and individual levels.
Qualia Analytics were commissioned to carry out this study on behalf of SFI, to cover a range of topics designed to help SFI, the scientific community and broader stakeholders to understand the landscape of public attitudes about science. The first phase of the study was carried out in Summer 2020 during the initial wave of COVID-19 in Ireland. Respondents were recruited with an innovative push-to-web approach to randomise the sample among all eligible households. In consultation with SFI stakeholders, we added a second phase of the study to be carried out in Summer 2021 to track long-term changes or stability in science attitudes among the same respondents in the first phase.
Reported findings from Phase I offer robust evidence about where Ireland stands in terms of the public’s relationship with science.