NUIG research projects get a massive State funding boost

By Denise McNamara

NUI Galway has received a massive financial boost after it was chosen to participate in three of seven new research centres which will benefit from funding of €300 million over six years.

In what has been labelled as the largest-ever State and industry co-funded research investment in Ireland, €200 million is being committed by the Government, while €100 million is being invested by over 150 industry partners.

Three of NUIG’s proposals were among seven successful projects selected from 35 tenders – a new ‘big data’ and analytics centre, called Insight, a new centre for Marine Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) and a Synthesis and solid State Pharmaceutical Technologies Cluster (SSPC).

The new centres will link scientists and engineers in partnerships across academia and industry to address key research questions and foster the development of new and existing Irish-based technology companies.

NUIG’s web science research centre, the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), and IT specialists will play a leading role in Insight, which has 32 industry partners, including Cisco, Avaya and HP in Galway.

Professor Stefan Decker, Director of DERI, said in the digital age, the amount of data is growing exponentially.

“We want to harness that information and make it work for individuals, for business and for society. This will have huge impact on the ICT sector in Ireland, in terms of supporting existing industry, attracting foreign direct investment and propelling Ireland onto the world stage in this area,” he said.

The Marine Renewable Energy centre will look to generate energy technologies for industry from wave, tidal and floating wind devices.

NUIG’s Professor Michael Hartnett, who will be deputy director of MaREI, along with Dr Conchur O’Bradaigh, will lead teams of researchers investigating tidal energy and the development of novel materials for use in the marine renewable energy industry.

The Synthesis and solid State Pharmaceutical Technologies Cluster (SSPC) is a joint initiative with the University of Limerick.

For more. read this week's Connacht Sentinel.