COMMERCIAL PROFILE: UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER:A cross-border funding initiative is bringing the best minds on the island to bear on pressing issues from healthcare to the environment
FIVE UNIVERSITY of Ulster research teams have been awarded a total of £7.7 million (€8.4 million) to pursue vital research projects into advanced healthcare technologies, osteoporosis and energy efficiency. Funded by the North's Department for Employment and Learning under its "Cross Border Research and Development Funding Programme", the research projects will be undertaken in partnership with sister universities in the Republic of Ireland.
The objective of the Cross Border Research and Development Funding Programme is to support Northern Irish universities in building additional, sustainable research capacity and capability that will contribute to the development of an all-island research infrastructure through meaningful, targeted collaboration with leading research teams in the Republic of Ireland.
University of Ulster vice-chancellor, Prof Richard Barnett, is very pleased with the success of the teams, especially given the very short timescale in which they had to submit their proposals.
"The schedule was very tight," Barnett notes. "Funding was available from the Government in the Republic of Ireland for the programme for quite some time, but the Department of Employment and Learning only came up with matching funding earlier this year. We were invited to come up with proposals during the summer and had six weeks to submit them."
The proposals went through an assessment process involving the two governments and independent bodies such as InterTradeIreland in September, with the winning projects being informed in October. The University of Ulster succeeded in securing 55 per cent of the available funding despite the short timeframe involved.
"This funding for University of Ulster-led research represents an endorsement and recognition of the international calibre of the research capacity at Ulster," says Barnett.
"The projects which have been funded are in areas of vital strategic significance to the economic and social development of Northern Ireland. Advances in medical technology, bioengineering, energy efficiency and nutrition touch all our lives.
"The projects also mark a milestone in our relations with our academic partners in the Republic of Ireland. Together, we will bring to bear on these important research themes the most powerful analytical minds on the island," he says.
Indeed, these relationships were central to the university's success in winning the funding.
"When we were notified about the programme we asked our people to put forward bids for funding," Barnett explains.
"However, because of the tight schedule involved, the bids had to be from people with existing North-South relationships or with established contacts in universities in the South. It would have been far too late to try to establish such relationships ab initio."
He cites the Irish Universities Nutrition Alliance Project as an example of such existing relationships.
"This has been going on for quite some time and is being built upon now as part of this programme," he says.
In this case the funding is enabling large scale research into the three major aging-associated illnesses of stroke, Alzheimer's and osteoporosis. A major study will be carried out involving 6,000 older people North and South in an effort to identify patterns and possible genetic predispositions to these conditions with a specific focus on osteoporosis.
"It is incredibly important that each of the projects for which we have won funding is in one of our areas of research specialisation," Barnett points out.
"Research and innovation are necessary for the enhancement of society and the economy, but we have to recognise that intellectual property is an international commodity and that the best way to advance it is to collaborate with others."
Of immediate practical benefit to the university will be the additional staffing generated by the funding.
"We have already advertised for 50 new posts as a result of this success," he notes. "These range from professors to researchers and we are seeking to fill them by March when the projects have to begin. We will also have additional PhD research positions.
"The programme has been a big boost to us in that way as well. Another thing that's pleasing is that all three of our campuses - Coleraine, Jordanstown and Magee - are included in the programme and this is an indication of the strength of research talent across the university, and a demonstration of the university's commitment to the research capacity of Northern Ireland as a whole," he says.
Looking to the future, Barnett says that the success of the projects will be tested by their ability to continue after this tranche of funding runs out.
"These are developmental projects and will become self-sustaining during the three-year period of funding under the programme. This is why they are based on existing projects or relationships; they will continue to apply for grants and funding from other sources. This will be the real measurement of their success."
UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER:Joint Research
ENERGY STORAGE
The principal aim of this research project, led by Prof Neil Hewitt, is to assess the extent to which the existing and future built environment can provide local energy storage and virtual bulk thermal and electrical energy storage.
The global energy storage market is currently worth £21 billion (€22.7 million) per year, and is set to grow by 55 per cent by 2012.
As the unpredictable nature of wind power currently limits share of supply to the electricity network, storing excess energy for later release enables a smoother, more predictable and therefore a more lucrative electricity supply. In turn, improved energy storage technologies will reduce the short cycling and standby of fossil fuel electricity generation plants, thereby reducing maintenance and running costs, decreasing the reliance on imported fossil fuels and reducing carbon use.
This project will be carried with Dublin Institute of Technology and NUI Maynooth and has been awarded funding of £1.5 million (€1.62 million).
CROSS-BORDER CENTRE FOR INTELLIGENT POINT OF CARE SENSORS
This proposal is to develop a sustainable world-class cross-border centre for Intelligent Point of Care Sensors (CIPS - pictured above) for real-time monitoring and analysis of multiple disease specific markers.
Led by Prof Jim McLaughlin and Prof Chris Nugent of the faculty of computing and engineering, the project will create a £2 million (€2.1 million) collaboration between the two main centres in Ireland in intelligent sensor technology - the Northern Ireland Bioengineering Centre at the University of Ulster/Computer Science Research Institute (CSRI) at Ulster, and the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, Dublin City University led by Prof Brian MacCraith.
COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH TEAM (CNRT)
This £1.5 million (€1.62 million) project will develop accurate computational models of brain regions known to be affected during the course of depression.
Led by Prof Martin McGinnity, the team will bring together the skill sets of two prominent and complementary research centres - the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) at the Magee campus of the University of Ulster and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), at Trinity College Dublin.
These powerful research units address brain research from traditionally opposite ends of the research spectrum, one from an engineering and computing aspect, the other from a psychological, neuroscientific and medical approach.
FUNCTIONAL BIOMATERIALS
Led by Prof Brian Meenan (pictured above), the new research centre will address key challenges in the areas of medical devices, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Functional biomaterials are materials which, when used in implants, can deliver active pharmacological agents into the body. Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering focus on the development of techniques to restore, maintain or enhance tissue and organ function in the body. The project will be carried out with NUI Galway and has been awarded funding of £1.39 million (€1.5 million).
IRISH UNIVERSITIES NUTRITION ALLIANCE PROJECT: NUTRITION AND BONE HEALTH
This project, led by Prof Helene McNulty, will establish an expert research capability for the study of nutrition and bone health, aimed at identifying strategies to prevent osteoporosis, a serious public health issue with major health and economic consequences.
The crippling bone disease costs Britain's NHS over £1.8 billion (€1.94 million) annually and EU health services some €30 billion. The proposal, which has been awarded funding of £1.24 million (€1.33 million), builds on the University of Ulster's existing cross border research activities and its research collaborations across Ireland.
The five projects selected for funding under the North-South Research Co-operation Programme range from tackling common diseases associated with ageing to new ways of storing the outputs of renewable energy sources
