Science has taken its place firmly in society and is an integral part of the cultural fabric of Ireland. This role carries obligations and opportunities for scientists and scientific institutions alike. Even while pausing to celebrate this milestone, UCD Conway Institute is firmly focused on the challenges ahead.
In society today, we are living longer – often with diseases that generations before us succumbed to. Cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease and dementia are rising in incidence against a backdrop of tightening healthcare budgets balanced against increased patient expectations and demands for better and more effective treatments. In UCD Conway, we focus on translating new knowledge in these disease areas into patient benefit.
The global economic downturn has exerted increasing pressures on the funding of science, and particularly on funding the basic science that underpins innovation and scientific breakthroughs. UCD Conway Institute is diversifying its funding streams in response and is succeeding in both attracting non-exchequer funding and collaborating with industry to achieve common goals.
Science itself has seen enormous change in the past decade. Since the completion of the human genome project, technological advances have shown the complexity of the biological systems that scientists are trying to study.
There has been an explosion in the amount of data being generated by scientific experiments today. UCD Conway researchers have been at the forefront of utilising ‘big data’ in advancing their knowledge. By harnessing the power of computers, we collect, analyse and model huge data sets to better understand diseases and develop improved therapies.
In the face of these major challenges, as we enter the next phase in the life of UCD Conway Institute, we will continue to build research excellence and to sustain the vibrant environment that ignites discovery, drives innovation and impacts positively on society for the next generation.
