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News 2023
UCC Research Awards
Climate scientists, the developers of the medicines of tomorrow, budding entrepreneurs and partners with communities were among the researchers to have their contributions to research and innovation honoured at the 2022 University College Cork (UCC) Research Awards, held at Devere Hall on Thursday, June 1. Twelve of the winners were from the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science.
UCC is an internationally competitive, research-led university that plays a key role in the development of Ireland’s knowledge-based economy and provides the insight and understanding on the challenges facing our society. The UCC Research Awards embrace this excellence in research, innovation and entrepreneurial activity, across the entire university research community and from all disciplines.
The quality and recognition of research success across the University, including outputs from individuals and UCC Research Institutes and Centres, is measured by key research metrics such as publications, citations, collaborative interactions, patents and spin-out companies. Researchers were awarded across 20 categories, five of which recognise specific achievements in entrepreneurship and innovation.
UCC’s first ERC Advanced award holder, Professor Paul Ross, and Professor Dagmar Schiek, the first legal scholar in Ireland to be awarded an Advanced ERC award, were joint winners of the Researcher of the Year award. UCC’s strong heritage in RNA research was also honoured - the ‘Father of RNA recoding’, Professor John Atkins, was the joint recipient of a Career Achievement award.
The guest of honour at the awards ceremony was Dr Catherine Day, chairperson of UCC’s governing body.
Professor John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation at UCC said: “Congratulations to all awards recipients. This year, the standard of nominations across all award categories was indicative of the exceptional level of research and innovation throughout the University. UCC is a research-intensive University, and the annual Research Awards recognise and celebrate those UCC researchers who have made exceptional and influential research and innovation contributions, pushing boundaries, enhancing knowledge and raising the national and international research profile of our institution.”
The full list of UCC Research Awards 2022 winners is below. College of Science, Engineering and Food Science winners are in bold.
| Award |
Winner(s) |
| Researcher of the Year |
Professor Paul Ross, APC Microbiome Ireland, and School of Microbiology Professor Dagmar Schiek |
| Early-Stage Researcher of the Year |
Dr Jean O'Dwyer, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences Dr Piotr Kowalski |
| Research Support Person of the Year |
Martin O’Connell Dr Seán Lucey |
| Research Supervisor of the Year |
Professor Catherine Stanton Dr Emanuel Popovici, School of Engineering and Architecture |
| Research Communicator of the Year |
Professor Hannah Daly, School of Engineering and Architecture/MaREI |
| Research Award for Open Science |
Professor Colm O’Dwyer, School of Chemistry |
| Creating a Culture for Responsible Conduct of Research |
Dr Aoife Coffey |
| Innovator of the Year (Life Sciences) |
Dr Lucia Santos, Dr Patrick Harrison |
| Innovator of the Year (Physical Sciences) |
Dr Han Shao, Dr Alan O'Riordan, Dr Tarun Narayan |
| Consultancy Project of the Year |
Dr Marguerite Nyhan, School of Engineering and Architecture/MaREI |
| Licence of the Year |
Applied Mathematics UCC & Mercy University Hospital |
| Spin-out Company of the Year |
Adiso Therapeutics (Professor Paul Ross and Professor Colin Hill), School of Microbiology) |
| Start-up of the Year |
Recruitroo |
| Best Publication of the Year Involving an Undergraduate Student as an Author |
Ruairí McIntyre |
| Research Team of the Year |
UCC Palaeontology, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| Research Image of the Year |
Roksana Niewadzisz |
| Engaged Research of the Year |
Professor Maggie O'Neill |
| Vice-President for Research and Innovation Award for Interdisciplinary Research |
Dr Katharina Becker Dr James O'Sullivan |
| Research Collaboration of the Year |
Dr Patrick O'Callaghan Professor Brendan Griffin |
| The President's Award for Research Impacting SDGs |
Dr Alicia Mateos Cárdenas, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences/ERI |
| Career Achievement Research Award |
Professor John Atkins, School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology Professor Anita Maguire, School of Chemistry |