News and Events
- UCD Engineering Spin-out Secures €6 Million to Accelerate Development of Groundbreaking Blood Flow Tech
- CDIC Automotive Design Competition 2024
- Teaching and Learning Awards
- Aisling Ní Annaidh recognised as a pioneer in her field through an ERC Consolidator Award
- Highly Cited: UCD researchers named amongst 2024’s most influential
- ESTEEM Graduate Programme
- Scientists’ next-generation space materials blast off for tests on ISS
- Competition! Celebrating John Stewart Bell’s Legacy
- Minister O’Donovan announces €26million for 40 research projects
- Engineering Class of 1958
- Professor Anding Zhu elected IEEE MTT-S President
- Bridges and Bytes – Launching the Student Voice on AI and Assessment
- European Research Council Funds Cutting-Edge Irish Research into Microplastics and Traumatic Brain Injury
- Professor Finola O'Kane appointed as a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks
- SBFE research fellow Xiaohui Lin receives the MSCA DOROTHY COFUND award
- Upskill with UCD’s engineering micro-credentials
- Minister O’Donovan announces funding boost for early career researchers
- Recent Lab visit by UCD Engineering & Architecture to Sheffield University Diamond Centre
- UCD Stormwater Runoff Research featured in Nicola Haines Team
- Madeleine Lowery among UCD Researchers recognised in SFI Frontiers for the Future Awards
- UCD’s LaNua Medical Wins Big Ideas Award at Enterprise Ireland’s Start-Up Day 2024
- Robotics Competition
- Congratulations to All the Winners of this years NovaUCD Awards
- Irish National Doctoral Research Cohort on Floating Offshore Wind Dynamic Cables is formed
- UCD and Northeastern University extend and deepen long-standing partnership with five collaborative research projects
- EPA announces €14.3M in new research funding
- Arup Scholarship Awards 2024
- UCD names new Vice-President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- Project promoting safe staffing in the healthcare system wins UCD Research Impact Competition
- VOICE Project Launches to Shape Tomorrow's Sustainability
- Archives
- 2023 News Archive
- 2022 News Archive
- 2021 News Archive
- 2020 News Archive
- Professor Da-Wen Sun Publishes Paper in Internationally Most Prestigious Journal (Impact Factor: 42.846)
- Assistant Professor Samantha Martin-McAuliffe new editor-in-chief of Architectural Histories.
- The Irish Laboratory Awards 2020
- Major development for Irish space sector as UCD launches Space Centre
- Introducing the winner of the Irish Research Council Impact Award
- University College Dublin Spin-Out Shortlisted for Irish Times Innovation Awards 2020
- UCD team wins prestigious ESB Inter-Colleges Challenge 2020
- University College Dublin Spin-out Wins Global Chemical Engineering Award
- UCD researchers named among world’s most influential
- Further Government Supported Places Announced
- Government Supported Places Announced
- NovoGrid Pilot Project Saves Over 300,000 kWh of Renewable Energy at Wexford Wind Farm
- Fourteen UCD research projects secure €10.2 million funding through SFI Frontiers for the Future Programme
- The Just Transition
- Nasrine Seraji joins UCD's School of APEP
- Two University College Dublin Spin-out Companies Shortlisted for the 2020 IChemE Global Awards
- Joyst Unveils a New Style of MIDI Music Controller and Launches a Kickstarter Campaign
- Celebrating this year's Women’s Economic Forum Award Winners
- Eight UCD projects awarded €1.5m to help respond to COVID-19 pandemic
- Revised Government public health guidelines impact on campus activities
- University College Dublin Spin-out Develops New Method to Generate Ozone Nanobubbles
- AERAP Virtual Conference
- Conferring Ceremony 2020
- Important information for incoming or continuing students of the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture
- Empowering the Full Potential of Image Data
- Digital Animation for Educators
- Eco-Health: Ecosystem Benefits of Greenspace for Health
- UCD First Year Engineering Students win the Grand Finals of the Engineers Without Borders-UK Engineering for People Design Challenge
- Intel’s Colm Farrell named as Adjunct Professor at UCD
- UCD Engineers Receive 2019 NovaUCD Innovation Awards
- PlasmaBound Seals €1.1 million Investment Round
- UCD Formula Student Wins the 2020 NovaUCD Student Enterprise Competition
- Fulbright Irish Awards: Nine UCD scholars selected for coveted transatlantic prize
- Two New COVID-19 Research and Innovation Projects at University College Dublin Receive Science Foundation Ireland Funding
- Eleven Early Stage Ventures Commence NovaUCD’s 2020 Start-up Programme for Student Entrepreneurs
- UCD Staff reflect on COVID-19’s Transformation of Education
- A Milestone — UCD Professor's H-Index (Web of Science) Reaches 100
- Airflow video shows how easily coronavirus can be spread by coughing
- UCD researcher co-leads €4.5m project to use cold plasma to treat Orthopaedic infection
- UCD Researchers Discover New Method to Generate Substantial Volumes of Nanobubbles in Water
- UCD volunteers use 3D printing to produce PPE for front-line COVID-19 medical staff
- UCD engineer leads Irish efforts in global race to build ventilators
- Minor Harbours of Ireland
- Forbes ‘30 under 30 Europe' recognises two UCD graduates
- UCD-based Inventors Help Create Ingenious Solutions to Everyday Problems for Extraordinary People on Big Life Fix
- Arup UCD Engineering scholarships 2019
- Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara Receive the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize
- President Higgins honours SFI President of Ireland Future Research Leaders
- UCD heat-resistant coating to allow ESA’s Solar Orbiter to get up close and personal with the Sun
- Intel and UCD Renew Collaboration on Talent, Research and Education
- Bottles or Cans – An Energy Analysis of Recycling that Prompts More Questions than Answers
- 2019 News Archive
- 2018 News Archive
- 2017 News Archive
- 2016 News Archive
- Building the State
- A Centenary Celebration
Eight UCD projects awarded €1.5m to help respond to COVID-19 pandemic
Monday, 28 September, 2020
Professor Fionnuala Ni Ainle, Professor Patricia Maguire and Dr Barry Kevane
-
The funding from the COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation Programme focuses on supporting projects addressing the immediate and pressing needs of society arising from the virus
Eight projects at University College Dublin been awarded just under €1.5 million in funding by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) under the COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation Programme.
The projects will each share in the funding windfall, and are among 41 that received a total of €5.5 million in new investment announced by Simon Harris TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.
“It is clear this virus is with us for a significant period of time and yet we still have a lot to learn about it. Research, development and innovation will play a significant role in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
“[These 41 projects] are part of a national drive to find solutions to the challenges we face now, and to help us prepare to live in a changing environment that requires new thinking and innovative approaches. I would like to congratulate all of the researchers receiving funding today and thank them for their efforts in Ireland’s collective response to COVID-19.”
Welcoming the announced funding, (opens in a new window)Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact said: "We are very proud of the response by UCD academics and clinicians to the Covid-19 crisis, having come to together rapidly and across numerous disciplines to produce effective, innovative solutions to the many challenges posed by the pandemic.
“The diversity and interdisciplinarity of the Covid Rapid Response projects demonstrates the breadth and depth of expertise across a range of fields from molecular biology to computer science, as well as the creative and collaborative spirit of UCD's academic community."
Among the eight UCD funded projects is one entitled ‘The COCOON study: COVID-19 coagulopathy and thrombosis: Novel prognostic and therapeutic opportunities’ led by Dr Barry Kevane, Consultant Haematologist at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, UCD Conway Institute and UCD School of Medicine.
In this multi-disciplinary clinical and translational research study, which has been awarded just under €294,000 in funding, Dr Kevane will work with key collaborators,(opens in a new window) Professor Patricia Maguire, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and Professor Fionnuala Ni Ainle, UCD School of Medicine and co-directors of the UCD Conway SPHERE research group.
The Cocoon Study is an international project which will examine blood coagulation in Covid-19 patients and its interplay with inflammation.
Using advanced artificial intelligence and genomics technologies, the project will deliver enhanced thrombotic prevention strategies and a rapid diagnostic platform for personalised risk assessment.
The study aims to address urgent clinical dilemmas and to develop novel solutions for existing diagnostic and therapeutic challenges.
Dr Kevane said: “Using technologies which have been developed by my colleagues Professor Fionnuala Ní Áinle and Professor Patricia Maguire in the UCD Conway SPHERE research group, we intend to characterise the molecular mechanisms underlying clotting derangements in COVID-19. A deeper understanding of this problem would help inform clinical decisions relating to clot prevention and treatment in this disease and would be of major clinical benefit.”
For further information on this project and details on the project partners, visit here.
Details on the seven other UCD funded research projects are as follows:
(opens in a new window)Professor Madeleine Lowery and (opens in a new window)Dr Emer Doheny, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, are the lead researchers on a project entitled ‘Home monitoring of respiration in Covid-19 patients using smartphone technology’.
(opens in a new window)Professor Paddy Mallon and (opens in a new window)Dr Virginie Gautier, UCD School of Medicine and the UCD Centre for Experimental Pathogen Host Research (CEPHR) are the lead researchers on ‘Detection and quantification of neutralising antibodies against Covid-19 infection’, which is looking at the detection and quantification of neutralising antibodies against COVID-19 infection.
(opens in a new window)Professor Gregory O’Hare, UCD School of Computer Science is the lead researcher in a project entitled ‘COMBAT: COvid-19 Modelling through agent-BAsed Techniques’ that is developing models that offer guidance regarding, the transmission of SARS-CoV-2; vaccine roll-out; and controlled sectoral and/or geographic return to work and school.
(opens in a new window)Professor Eilish McAuliffe, (opens in a new window)UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems and UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Education and Innovation in Health Systems is the lead researcher in a project entitled ‘Expanding Care Capacity through Remote Monitoring of Covid-19 patients’.
(opens in a new window)Professor Michael Gilchrist and (opens in a new window)Dr Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Dr Jaythoon Hassan, UCD National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL) and (opens in a new window)Dr Nicola Fletcher, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine are the leads on a project entitled ‘Development of Plastic Packaging and Film Resistant to COVID-19’ which aims to develop a plastic film that will ensure coronavirus does not remain viable for more than 60 minutes.
(opens in a new window)Professor James FX Jones, UCD School of Medicine is the lead researcher on ‘Manufacture of Novel Covid-19 Laryngoscopes for Airway Intubation’, an interdisciplinary project exploring the manufacture of a cheap, disposable, 3D printed video-laryngoscope customised for COVID-19 patients.
(opens in a new window)Professor Dermot Brougham, UCD School of Chemistry is the lead researcher in a project entitled ‘Next Generation Magnetic Beads for enhanced viral RNA detection and improved COVID-19 Testing, Securing Supply, Improving Performance’.
The COVID-19 Rapid Response Research, Development and Innovation programme was established by SFI, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, the Health Research Board and Irish Research Council.
Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government, said: “The COVID-19 Rapid Response Research and Innovation funding is critical to supporting Ireland’s National Action Plan in response to the pandemic.
“This is the fourth announcement of COVID-19 funding from SFI to support research projects across a number of Higher Education Institutes. In the global response to COVID-19, collaboration and partnership are key.
“As a nation, we are stronger when we work together, and we will continue to generate solutions to the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Micéal Whelan and Caroline Byrne, UCD Research and Innovation)