2024
Early career researchers receive prestigious Research Ireland funding
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.
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.
Among the 32 UCC projects funded under the GOI Postgraduate Scholarship programme are:
- Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport in female GAA athletes and the impact on endocrine function and bone health.
- Using Artificial Intelligence tools in the development of individualised speech and language therapeutic resources for complex syntax intervention in young children with Developmental Language Disorder.
- At the Frontline of Climate Activism: Exploring the gender dynamics of contemporary climate activism in Ireland.
- Rationally designed sulfur-derived antivirals - novel treatments for HIV.
- Out of Focus- The History and Development of Film Preservation in Ireland.
Three of the UCC based Government of Ireland postgraduate scholarships are made in collaboration with, and funded by, the following partner agencies: the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Among the 15 UCC projects funded under the GOI Postdoctoral Fellowship programme are:
- Decoding the role of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in food reward.
- Making space for play in Irish schoolyards: Analysing existing compliance with play rights recommendations and developing case study exemplars.
- Trajectories and Experiences of Reproductive and Maternal Healthcare for migrant and other racialised women and pregnant people in Ireland.
A full list of all UCC awardees are as follows:
Postgraduate Scholarships
| Awardee | UCC School / Department / Institute | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| Adrianne Wyse | Medicine | Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport in female GAA athletes and the impact on endocrine function and bone health. |
| Alison Noreen Walsh | Chemistry | Synthesis and evaluation of novel pyridocarbazoles as inhibitors of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) and cell cancer growth. |
| Ana Oliveira Buckley | Clinical Therapies | Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in the development of individualised speech and language therapeutic resources for complex syntax intervention in young children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). |
| Barry Lynch | Tyndall National Institute | Tailoring non classical light emission from quantum dot microcavity systems – from fundamental electronic structure to novel excitation schemes. |
| Cáit Pléimionn | Irish Learning | Craobhscaoileadh soiscéil an Chonnartha’: A study of the personal papers and manuscripts of Irish language activist and Gaelic League organiser Peadar Ó hAnnracháin (1873-1965). |
| Conor Hill | Microbiology | Deciphering Blue Ecosystem Chemical Communication Networks for Sustainable Next Generation solutions to the Antimicrobial Resistance Crisis. |
| Dara Meehan | Microbiology | Genetic Lineage, Microbiome and Forage; The interactions between these variables and how they affect honeybee health in Ireland. |
| Diarmuid Carey | Pharmacy | Optimising the design and manufacture of tablet dosage forms for oral peptide delivery. |
| Diarmuid O Sullivan | Tyndall National Institute | Modelling, fabrication, and characterisation of novel photonic integrated circuits for broadband optical communications and supercontinuum generation. |
| Edith Busteed | Applied Social Studies | At the Frontline of Climate Activism: Exploring the gender dynamics of contemporary climate activism in Ireland. |
| Edyta Andzel-O'Shanahan | Languages, Literatures & Cultures | Monstrosity, biopolitics, resistance and selfhood in contemporary Mexican speculative fiction. |
| Fabio Boiocchi | Biochemistry | Unveiling the effects of specialized ribosomes and cellular environments on AMD1 tail and polyamines regulation in health and disease. |
| Giulia Bernuzzi | Italian | Climate Change and Urban Space in Contemporary Italian Literature. |
| Guosheng Ming | Film, Music & Theatre | The Essay Film in Contemporary Art: New Media Technology and Hybrid Essayistic Variants – A Research in Theory and Practice. |
| James Brown | Tyndall National Institute | Multiscale Simulations and Development of Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials to Predict Ferroelectric, Piezoelectric and Pyroelectric Properties of Doped Aluminum Nitride |
| Jordan Carolan | Languages, Literatures & Cultures | Bridging ontological divides: A socio-psychological inquiry of motivation in study abroad students from Confucian-heritage cultures. |
| Karla O'Shea | Medicine | Development of a Novel Cell Free DNA Biomarker for Colorectal Cancer Immunotherapy to Monitor Vδ1 T Cell Expansion. |
| Kasandra O'Connell | Film, Music & Theatre | Out of Focus- The History and Development of Film Preservation in Ireland. |
| Marta Pagliuca Pelacani | Italian | Re-imagining Italian Peasants: A Postcolonial Analysis of Representations of Peasants in Literature and Film. |
| Meaghan Richardson | Pharmacy | Developing synthetic circular RNA miRNA sponges for modulation of gene and protein expression in sepsis. |
| Mélanie Depret | Anatomy & Neuroscience | MICROBEGENIAL: Decoding the gut-brain mechanisms mediating the impact of gut MICROBEs on GENetic inter-individual social variability. |
| Mireia Gómez i Martínez | Languages, Literatures & Cultures | Linguistic hospitality in Contexts of Complex Linguistic Diversity: Exploring the Catalan “Aula d'Acollida” model from a comparative perspective. |
| Oscar Dunne | Pharmacy | Rationally designed sulfur-derived antivirals - novel treatments for HIV. |
| Patrick O'Callaghan | Physics | Development of a Scanning Spin Noise Microscope for the Measurement of Magnetic Monopole Structures and Quantum Spin Liquids Candidates. |
| Rebecca Galway | Chemistry | Dye-Loaded Aptamers as a Theranostic Platform for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy. |
| Rebecca Henry | Chemistry | Facilitating a circular economy through polymer-to-material chemical transformations of waste plastics. |
| Robin Lewando | Geography & Human Environment | A multi-proxy investigation into the timing and causes of biodiversity shifts since the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition in southwest Ireland. |
| Robyn McAuliffe | English & Digital Humanities | Gendered Trauma in Old English Literature. |
| Ruth O'Connell | Chemistry | Synthesis of aromatic analogues of newly discovered Resolvin E4 - development of potent anti-inflammatory drugs. |
| Seán Aodh O'Donoghue | Physics | Dynamics for Computation in Quantum Dot Lasers. |
| Stephen Sweetnam | Chemistry | Design and synthesis of novel IMPDH inhibitors to target resistant pathogenic microbes. |
| Valerie Hickey | BEES | Harnessing coastal marine activities to enhance marine environmental protection through citizen science education and conservation research. |
Postdoctoral Fellowships
| Awardee | UCC School / Department / Institute | Project Title |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Aurora Moxon | Languages, Literatures, and Cultures | Mountain Mobilities: Cultural Renewal in the Aspromonte. |
| Dr Ayse Ozcan Atar | Tyndall National Institute | Innovative Single Chip Optical Transmitter Enabled by New, Vertically Stacked, Laser and Modulator, High Performance, Single Integrated module - VMode. |
| Dr Danny Shanahan | English & Digital Humanities | Disturbed Areas: Literature and Emergency Law in Kashmir and Northern Ireland. |
| Dr Dyuti Chakravarty | Sociology & Criminology | Trajectories and Experiences of Reproductive and Maternal Healthcare for migrant and other racialised women and pregnant people in Ireland. |
| Dr Elizabeth Schneider | APC Microbiome Ireland | Decoding the role of the microbiota-gut-brain axis in food reward. |
| Dr Eoin Russell | Tyndall National Institute | Optical Frequency Comb Source for Greenhouse Gas Sensing Based on Silicon Microring Resonators. |
| Dr George Rayson | Italian | Dante's hapax legomena in the 'Commedia': A Study of Poetic Singularity. |
| Dr Jemima Hodgkinson | French | Cultural Engagement in the Black Press of New York and Paris, 1919-32. |
| Dr Leonora Masini | Italian | A Sense of Time: A Sense of Nation. A Comparative Study of Afterlives of Italian Colonialism through Visual and Literary Works. |
| Dr Luiza Wasiewska | Tyndall National Institute | EndoSensor – Endolysin-based sensor for highly sensitive detection of multiple clinically relevant pathogenic bacteria. |
| Dr Michelle Bergin | Clinical Therapies | Making space for play in Irish schoolyards: Analysing existing compliance with play rights recommendations and developing case study exemplars. |
| Dr Nicole Todd | BEES | Porpoises, PAM, and perspectives for conservation and management. |
| Dr Pongsiri Kuresangsai | Engineering & Architecture | Smart-fluid-controlled compliant mechanisms for nano-manipulation. |
| Dr Sam Rumé | Sociology & Criminology | Ecuador tramlines: An ethnography of contested sustainable performativities in small cities. |
| Dr Semu Abebe | BEES | Inter-patch connectivity among plant meta-communities and structural dynamics of relict patches in northern Ethiopia. |
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."