Irish colleges and companies have been awarded €42 million research funding from the European Commission under the Marie Curie Actions programme.
The EU funding award will be announced by the Irish Universities Association today as a major success story for research and development (R&D) in the Republic. The association, which co-ordinates the research activities of the Irish university sector, says more than 220 new research positions have been created over the past three years under the programme.
About €9 million of the funds have been awarded to private sector companies to help them recruit researchers based overseas to undertake R&D in the Republic, while the remainder has been allocated to Irish third level colleges and universities.
In the latest call for Marie Curie funding, which is worth more than €10 million, Duolog Limited, Cellix Limited and Celtic Catalysts Limited have been awarded grants. UCC, the Tyndall Institute, UCD, TCD and NUI Galway have also secured funds to support research in the biomedical and nanotechnology sectors, according to the association.
Siobhan Harkin, research officer of the Irish Universities Association, said Irish applications to the recent call under the Marie Curie programme had scooped almost a quarter of the entire grant award worth €45 million in the most recent round. She said the university association decision to partner with the private sector to apply for grants had been very successful.
Other companies that have successfully applied for funding under the commission's Marie Curie Actions programme include Allegro Technologies, Eirx Therapeutics, Ntera Ltd, Ericsson Ireland, and Aughinish Alumina, which was awarded a grant worth €1.7 million.
The Aughinish Alumina project is concerned with transferring knowledge into Europe on the extraction process of alumina, from expert centres around the world but particularly Australia. The company, which has a partnership with the University of Limerick, is initially undertaking research in the laboratory before putting it into practice at its plant outside Limerick.
A new call for applications for funding under the Marie Curie programme was announced in July with a deadline for applications due on January 19th, 2006.
