Minister Harris announces 27 grants worth €2.1 million for academic and industry collaborations

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, has today announced 27 new academic and industry research collaborations on behalf of Science Foundation Ireland, valued at €2.1 million.

The SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship Programme will support the temporary placement of academic researchers in 19 companies. These researchers undertake research projects across a variety of areas, including microbiology, virtual reality (VR), chatbots optimisation, biotechnology, coastal erosion, breast cancer, photodynamic therapy and more. The industry partners on these awards will provide co-funding with a combined value of €1.9 million.

Minister Harris said:

“I’m delighted to welcome this fellowship programme bringing together academic researchers and industry partners, to undertake collaborative research that will see them mutually benefit from each other’s invaluable knowledge and expertise. I want to commend Science Foundation Ireland for announcing this funding which will be important in developing some exciting research projects.”

Prof Philip Nolan, Director General SFI, said:

“We are delighted to offer this new fellowship programme to academic researchers looking to apply their knowledge in industry. At SFI, we are keen to be part of a framework that can enable researchers to seek and secure diverse career opportunities in areas such as industry, research funding and administration and government affairs. The applications to the programme have been incredibly strong and we are pleased to see such a high-calibre of projects coming to life.”

Those who are awarded fellowships can take them on a full-time basis between one and 12 months or on a part-time basis, between 2 and 24 months. The maximum award amount funded by SFI is €100,000. The programme was supported by IDA Ireland who see it as an enabler to innovation for their client companies.

The fellowship programme is designed to kick-start postdoctoral academic researchers’ careers in industry and to maximise the impact of their training. The programme also supports academic faculty researchers who want to spend time in industry alongside their academic responsibilities. Simultaneously, the placement will allow industry partners to benefit from their research fellows’ knowledge to collaborate on bringing innovative solutions to industry challenges.

Applications for the 2022 SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship call are now open with two submission deadlines. The first submission deadline is on 18 May 2022; the second submission deadline is on 19 October 2022.

Academics and industry partners awarded funding

Research body	Proposal title	Researcher	Industry partner
University College Dublin	Toward an Eco-Friendly Heat Treatment Process for Steel Wire	Emad Tandis	Bekaert
University College Dublin	Development and application of process analytical technology (PAT) tools for in-line monitoring of milk powder reconstitution processes	Ming Zhao	Lakeland Dairies Co Operative Society Ltd
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences	BreaSt CancEr ImmuNe EcoSystem-derived T Cell ThErapy (SENSE)	Petra Jagust	Remedy Biologics Ltd
National University of Ireland Galway	Sustainable Additive Manufacturing of Orthopaedic Implants	Eimear O'Hara	Zimmer Biomet
University College Dublin	Investigation of High Gain Circularly Polarized Antenna with Wide Beamwidth for Low Power Wide Area Network	Xiulong Bao	Antenna Company
Trinity College Dublin	Reflective Spectroscopy Probe	Jorge Garcia	Miravex
Trinity College Dublin	Surface Finishing of 3-D Printed Implant Devices and Instruments	Daire Tyndall	De Puy Ireland Unlimited Company
Athlone Institute of Technology	Recovery of PEEK recyclate for use in orthopaedics	James Murray	De Puy Ireland Unlimited Company
University of Limerick	Fabrication and Characterization of Silicon based Biointerfaces for Biosensor Application	Balasubramaniam M	Analog Devices, Inc
University College Cork	Adaptation of wave structure interaction modelling to characterise the performance of a novel mooring optimisation device for floating offshore wind	Majid Bhinder	Dublin Offshore Consultants Ltd
Trinity College Dublin	Aeroacoustics Noise Modelling, Measurement and Prediction to standardise HDD-Chassis interactions used in large-scale Date Centres	Sahan Wasala	Seagate Technology LLC
RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences	Preparation of 18F or 19F labelled RNAs via 4’-F and 2’-F-deoxyribose nucleotides and their precursors	Karen Fox	KelAda Pharmachem Ltd
National University of Ireland Galway	Putting the Bio in Biosensing: Bioassay Development for a Silicon-based Electrical Transduction Platform	Marie Le Berre	Analog Devices, Inc
Tyndall National Institute	Design and fabrication of a novel highly localised drug delivery device for Photodynamic Therapy	Walter Messina	Boston Scientific
University of Limerick	Selective Delayering of Low-geometry Materials by Plasma FIB Dx Chemistry for the Failure Analysis of Magnetic Sensors	Ibrahim Saana Amiinu	Analog Devices, Inc
Trinity College Dublin	Assessment of coastal evolution and vulnerability along County Wicklow using geospatial techniques	Sojan Mathew	Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions Ltd (GDG)
Trinity College Dublin	Anti-Corrosion Sol-Gel Based Coatings for 3D Printed Ceramic and Metal Substrates	Sudhakara Naidu Neppalli	Kastus Technologies
National University of Ireland Galway	Mechanical Behavior of Recycled Carbon Fiber Composites Subject to Hygrothermal Exposure	Akash Pisharody	EireComposites Teo
University of Limerick	Development of Advanced Coating and Masking Technologies for Bioactive 3D-Printed Implants (MaskBio)	Ahmad Ziaee	De Puy Ireland Unlimited Company
University College Dublin	End-User Considerations in the Transition to a Green Gas Network	Mohammad Ali Ekhtiari	Gas Networks Ireland
University College Dublin	xSymGen: A Symptom Generation Framework for SAIN using xAI	Shen Wang	Huawei Technologies (Ireland) Co, Ltd
Trinity College Dublin	Development of novel analysis technology for rapid detection of infectious particles	James Duffy	Cellix
University College Dublin	Floating Offshore Wind: Site Characterisation Framework (FlOWSiChaF)	Srikumar Roy	Gavin & Doherty Geosolutions Ltd (GDG)
National University of Ireland Galway	The Next-Gen VR-driven Serious Communication & Collaboration Hybrid Infrastructures for Business	Lukasz Porwol	Fidelity Investments Ireland
University of Limerick	Can the evolution of depth cameras enable holographic interaction?	Lilian MottiAder	Analog Devices, Inc
Waterford Institute of Technology	Recyclability of metallic Titanium powders for 3D printing of biomedical products	Nima E. Gorji	Boston Scientific
National University of Ireland Galway	Goal-oriented Chatbots optimisation with Reinforcement Learning	Jamal Nasir	Fidelity Investments Ireland