In April 2002, the Higher Education Authority, the Health Research Board, the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology signed an agreement to work together as research funding bodies to maximise the contribution of their organisations to achieving the national goal of building world class research capacity in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland also participate in the committee. The objective of the Standing Committee is to ensure coordination and coherence in process, planning and scheduling and the exploitation of inter-programme complementarities.