News 2024
School of Chemistry Research Awardees 2024
The School congratulates recent awardees of prestigious Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland awards to support their research in Chemistry at UCC.
Early-stage researchers at University College Cork (UCC) have received over €4.6m in research funding in the 2024 Government of Ireland (GOI) Postdoctoral Fellowship and Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship awards. Five of the new PhD students funded through these awards are in the School of Chemistry - Alison Noreen Walsh, Rebecca Galway, Rebecca Henry, Ruth O’Connell, Stephen Sweetnam.
The programmes support exceptional early-career researchers to pursue cutting-edge research with world-class potential in any discipline across the sciences, engineering, arts and humanities. The highly competitive programme enables the development of high-level skills and knowledge for current and future challenges across a variety of settings, including industry, the public sector, civil society and academia.
47 UCC research projects have received awards announced today by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Patrick O’Donovan.
The 5 UCC projects funded in the School of Chemistry under the GOI Postgraduate Scholarship programme are:
- Synthesis and evaluation of novel pyridocarbazoles as inhibitors of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) and cell cancer growth
- Dye-Loaded Aptamers as a Theranostic Platform for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy
- Synthesis of aromatic analogues of newly discovered Resolvin E4 - development of potent anti-inflammatory drugs
- Design and synthesis of novel IMPDH inhibitors to target resistant pathogenic microbes
- Facilitating a circular economy through polymer-to-material chemical transformations of waste plastics.
Nationally, the Research Ireland funding is a combined €27.5m and will be allocated to 290 projects across the two programmes.
Announcing the funding awards, Minister Patrick O’Donovan said: "Following the establishment of Research Ireland earlier this year, I am delighted to announce this very significant investment in top research talent. Ireland has a strong reputation for research and innovation and it is vital that we continue to invest in future research leaders who, together, can play a key role in addressing the many challenges we face and the opportunities open to us. The ability to attract and retain excellent researchers within Ireland is key to the success of our knowledge economy for the long-term, and the Government of Ireland programme supports this aim. I wish the many researchers supported under the 2024 programme every success with their projects."
Celine FitzGerald, Interim CEO of Research Ireland, said: “Research Ireland is delighted to be making this major investment in new research talent. A diverse range of early-career researchers working across a spectrum of disciplines will benefit from this funding, including awardees funded by the programme’s valued partners. The 290 awardees have demonstrated through rigorous international assessment the quality of their projects and the capacity to contribute new insights and solutions to technological, scientific, environmental, social and cultural challenges."
Congratulating all UCC awardees, Professor John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation said: “I would like to congratulate all postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and their principal investigators on securing these prestigious awards. These awards will support the development of the next generation of innovative researchers in UCC, as they pursue excellence across a range of research disciplines, spanning all ten thematic areas of UCC Futures.”
Prof. Anita Maguire, Head of School, congratulating the five awardees in the School of Chemistry said, "Well done to the five Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship awardees and their PhD supervisors. These prestigious awards provide each of the PhD students an opportunity to explore their chosen projects over the next 4 years and develop their research ideas. PhD education is central to the mission of the School of Chemistry, and we are delighted to welcome all five to our researcher team in the School. Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship awards have been central to postgraduate research in the School over the past 15 years supporting many of our PhD students to pursue research studies."
Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland is the new national research and innovation funding agency, established on the 1st August 2024 through the amalgamation of the activities and functions of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC).