Hard times have forced Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), Ireland's main research agency, to cut the number of awards for this year's principal-investigator scheme. On 28 April, the SFI announced 27 awards totalling €25 million (US$32.2 million); the average grant also fell — from €1.4 million to €1 million. The awards are to fund 139 posts, including postdocs, PhDs and technical roles; 18 awards will help new investigators to build research teams, meaning more jobs. “It's tight and it's tough,” says Graham Love, SFI director of policy and communications. “But we're in a holding pattern, maintaining the opportunities we've built to date as best we can until we return to proper funding levels.”