UNIVERSITY COLLEGE Dublin has achieved a major research success, winning the leadership role in two EU-funded cancer projects.
The two consortiums have received funding worth €18 million under the Seventh Framework Programme research budget.
Details of the awards were issued yesterday by the university. One project worth €12 million will look at how genetic mutations can lead to the development of cancer. It will be led by Prof Walter Kolch, the director of Systems Biology Ireland at UCD.
Another worth €6 million will search for new treatments for types of breast cancer that are resistant to mainstream therapies. This includes up to 25 per cent of all breast cancers, says Prof William Gallagher of UCD’s Conway Institute who will head up this project. Funding extends over a five-year period and as is typical with FP7 projects they will include research centres from across the EU.
“The success of our funding application shows that Ireland can be a major player in the future research landscape of Europe,” Prof Kolch said yesterday.
Winning the lead position in the two projects was a reflection of the researchers’ “scientific ingenuity”, stated Dr Stephen Simpson, director of life sciences at Science Foundation Ireland.
“The fact that two SFI-funded PIs [principal investigators] will lead these major EU investments is a testament to the strategy for research investment in Ireland,” said UCD’s vice president for research Prof Des Fitzgerald.
Cancers are a major cause of death across Europe while between 7,500 and 8,000 people die of the disease in Ireland every year.