• Two UCC projects awarded a combined €2.7m from the European Research Council.
• Dr Hilary Browne to study spore-forming gut bacteria as a tool to target harmful pathogens.
• Dr Dónal Hassett to study the post-war impact that the First World War had on colonial subjects.

• Irish fintech company Exceedence Ltd aims to raise €500K to advance their innovative new software solution, exfin.
• The software speeds up the rollout of offshore wind, wave and tidal energy projects.
• Financial modelling for renewable energy projects can be costly and no current solution gives a proper ‘big picture’ view.

Monday 4th September 2023 is the closing date for applications for the next intake of participants for the next IGNITE programme, which gets underway in October. The IGNITE programme is open to recent graduates in any discipline, from any third level institution in Ireland, who have the passion and ambition to work full-time on a scalable start-up idea that has potential for economic, environmental or social impact. 

• Mathematicians find the speed with which we approach critical levels of climate change is as dangerous to our survival as reaching these critical levels.
• Rate-induced tipping is triggered not by reaching a critical level of climate change, but instead by a critical rate of change, and can occur before that level is reached. 
• Other examples include the surge in demand on the national grid after sporting events.

• Study shows that children who are active outdoors in rural areas with frequent exposure to animals have better regulated immune systems.
• Exposure to different environmental factors during early life is believed to play a crucial role in training the immune system.
• A better understanding of the early life immune system may progress the development of interventions to modulate the immune response to support lifelong health.

Researchers from UCC’s School of Mathematical Sciences and the Mercy University Hospital developed a mathematical model which analyses and predicts the incidence and prevalence of various diseases across the population and can analyse the possible effects of a range of ‘what if’ scenarios. This technology, which has been licenced to Laya Healthcare, won the UCC Licence of the Year Award at the UCC Research and Innovation Awards, held on June 1st. Laya Healthcare can use the technology to profile the risks for their customers and make commercial decisions around the building and costing of insurance policies.

The UCC Innovation team, and colleagues from across UCC who are involved in innovation and entrepreneurship, are delighted to bring you this summer edition of the UCC Innovates eNewsletter.  We hope that you enjoy this edition.

• Expert in international migration studies secures €2.5m ERC Advanced Grant.
• The grant will support a global study of international migration and mobility.
• The UCC project highlights the importance of humanities and social sciences research in a rapidly changing world.

Cork based MedTech company CergenX, which is developing ground breaking technology to screen newborns for brain injury, has raised an additional €1.2 million in funding.

The funding will support the ongoing development of the Newborn Brain Screener. The company will now expand its team by recruiting highly skilled professionals in AI, Product Management and Software Engineering. By attracting top talent in these critical areas, Cergenx aims to build on its strong momentum to date and accelerate the product's path to market.

• The programme aims to help PhD students and research staff to explore diverse career pathways into a variety of sectors.