Seven UCD projects among awardees to receive €24m to support rising research leaders

Posted 6 November 2022

Seven UCD researchers are among awardees to receive €24m in investment to support rising leaders among Ireland’s early-stage research talent.

The projects have been funded through the (opens in a new window)SFI-IRC Pathway programme – a collaborative initiative between (opens in a new window)Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the (opens in a new window)Irish Research Council (IRC) – that supports blossoming research across all disciplines, and to encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

The seven awardees among the 43 researchers to receive funding are:

• Dr Bartosz Bieszczad, UCD School of Chemistry, project title: ’Nature Inspired Chemical Transformations’.
• Dr Tim Groenland, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, project title: ‘The Publishing Infrastructures of Contemporary Anglophone Literature’.
• Dr Karen Lange, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, project title: ‘Rare Disease Modelling and Drug Discovery in C.elegans: using CRISPR genome editing in worms to help diagnose and treat ciliopathies.’
• Dr Andrew McDiarmid, UCD School of History, project title: ‘Forgotten Funding: The Tontine and its cultural and societal impact on Britain and Ireland, 1693-1900’.
• Dr Frances Nolan, UCD School of History, project title: ‘Law versus practice: women and property-ownership in early modern Ireland, 1541-1800’.
• Dr Sarah Raine, UCD School of Music, project title: ‘Improvising Across Boundaries: Voicing the experience of women and gender-minority improvising musicians’.
• Dr Oleksii Rukhlenko, UCD School Of Medicine, project title: ‘Using cyber-physical network modelling to tackle RAS-driven cancers’.

The awards will enable postdoctoral researchers to conduct independent research for a four–year period and will provide funding for a postgraduate student who will be primarily supervised by the awardee.

“I am pleased to announce funding for critical research projects spanning a broad range of areas across science, technology, engineering, maths, arts, humanities and social sciences,” said Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD.

“By supporting this activity, we are cultivating generational talent within Ireland’s research and innovation ecosystem that is focusing on key challenges and opportunities and on the issues facing this generation such as climate and technology.”

SFI-IRC Pathway Programme. Minister (opens in a new window)@SimonHarrisTD announces €24 million support for 43 emerging research talents in areas such as AI and vaping; Read about the projects: (opens in a new window)https://t.co/jBJHASubiD(opens in a new window)@scienceirel(opens in a new window)@IrishResearch(opens in a new window)#LoveIrishResearch

— IrishResearchCouncil (@IrishResearch) (opens in a new window)November 3, 2023

Professor Philip Nolan, SFI Director, added: “The SFI-IRC Pathway programme supports researchers at a comparatively early stage in their career to pursue independent research and discovery. 

“In partnership with the Irish Research Council, we are nurturing and developing really promising talent across diverse research areas. Their work will give us new insights and knowledge, and drive innovation, across the full spectrum from humanities to science, engineering and technology.”

Director of the Irish Research Council, Peter Brown, said bridging the gap between postdoctoral stage and that of an independent principal investigator was “a key milestone in the development of a researcher, and the Pathway programme is making an important contribution in this regard in the Irish research ecosystem”. 

“It also supports the retention of excellent researchers with cutting-edge ideas within our research system, and I have no doubt that this will support further success and new opportunities in the years ahead.”

Co-funding partners supporting the funding of seven awarded proposals include the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Met Éireann and Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), committing a total of €1.95 million.

By: David Kearns, Digital Journalist / Media Officer, UCD University Relations (with materials from Emma Loughney, UCD Research and Innovation)

To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie