School of Life Sciences

 UCC is composed of four Colleges:

1. Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences
2. Business and Law
3. Medicine and Health
4. Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS)

Within each college there are a number of schools and departments. As a part of University restructuring a School of Life Sciences was formed in 2009. This School is equally embedded in the Colleges of Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) and the College of Medicine and Health. As a representation, the Colleges of Science Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) and the College of Medicine and Health are illustrated below.

The School of Life Sciences provides a focal point for the integration of top class academic teaching and programmes coupled with leading edge research in order to improve the health and well-being of the population. This School formally links the Departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Physiology, and Pharmacology and Therapeutics into a cohesive interdisciplinary research and teaching unit. The BSI is incorporated into the school as a research institute and the Head of School of Life Sciences is also the Director of the Biosciences Institute.

This strategic development provides significant benefits for teaching and research interaction/integration; research promotion and research translation from bench to bedside to population.

The School of Life Sciences

• Brings together a critical mass of researchers, teaching practitioners and clinicians in the Life Science areas, all located in the western part of the UCC campus
• Enhances the research capability and infrastructure for all areas of Life Science in UCC
• Facilitates and improves interactions between scientific and clinical researchers in the two Colleges to promote translational research and application of systems biology 
• Increases efficiency and cost effectiveness through sharing of equipment and expertise
• Enhances the competitiveness of UCC with respect to developing new strategic areas and attracting high quality researchers, students and other external interest groups
• Increases competitiveness in attracting external funding from national and international research agencies in a sustainable fashion

There are a number of research centres based in the Biosciences Institute:

• Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC)
• Biomerit Research Centre
• Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC)
• Centre for Research in Vascular Biology (CRVB)

Finally, there are a number of key platform technologies available in the Biosciences Institute, supporting the research efforts and available for use by others. http://www.ucc.ie/en/bsi/platformtech/