The persecution of religious minorities in Soviet Ukraine, the economic aspects of wind farms and and the role of the gut in influencing memory, mood and motivation are among the research projects at UCC that have received over €3.2 million in funding under a new programme to support Ireland’s emerging research talent. 

The SFI-IRC Pathway programme is new collaborative initiative between Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC) to support early career research across all disciplines and to encourage interdisciplinary approaches. 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. 

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris said “I am thrilled to announce these exciting new research projects, which allow researchers to advance their work and further develop their careers towards becoming the next generation of research leaders in Ireland.” 

Commenting Professor John Cryan, Vice-President for Research & Innovation at UCC stated “I’d like to congratulate these wonderful researchers on receiving these prestigious awards. Their diverse projects share the same goal of trying to address critical societal problems for a sustainable future” 

ERI researchers who received funding as part of the scheme were: 

Damien Haberlin - Damien is using animal tracking technology to investigate interactions between elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and offshore renewable energy devices

Peter Deeney - Peter’s project focuses on the economic aspects of wind farms, and he will develop decision support tools to assess a fair price for a wind farm