French pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories and the Conway Insitute at University College Dublin are to set up a centre for excellence for translational medicine.
Translational medicine aims to bridge the gap between research and practical applications for patients.
The partnership was announced today by the Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney.
The announcement marks the beginning a five-year commitment to the development of a Centre for Excellence in Biopharmaceutical Sciences and will include a clinical research programme and a bioinformatics and eHealth initiative.
One of the first tasks facing the new centre will be to establish a blood pressure clinical research unit alongside the heart failure unit in St Vincent's University Hospital and St Michael's Hospital to form the Chronic Cardiovascular Disease Unit.
This unit is unique in linking primary care with the latest medical breakthroughs.
By bringing the latest therapies for cardiovascular disease from the scientific and pharmaceutical laboratories to the community, it is predicted Ireland can reduce stroke and heart attack by over 50 per cent.
The second phase is the Basic Research Programme, which explores the mechanisms of disease in several areas, specifically focusing on the cardiovascular diseases of hypertension, ischaemic cardiac failure and neurodegeneration.
Ms Harney said the establishment of the centre was a significant landmark in Irish medical research.
"It is imperative that we bridge the gap between research and patient care. The establishment of the UCD Servier Centre for Translational Medicine will provide a direct link from the research laboratories to the health services," she said.