Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Patrick O’Donovan TD has today announced €27.5m in funding for 290 projects under the Government of Ireland postgraduate scholarship and postdoctoral fellowship programmes.
The Government of Ireland schemes support exceptional early-career researchers to pursue cutting-edge research with world-class potential in any discipline across the sciences, engineering, arts and humanities.
Minister O’Donovan TD, said: “Following the establishment of Research Ireland earlier this year, I am delighted to announce this very significant investment in top research talent.
“Ireland has a strong reputation for research and innovation and it is vital that we continue to invest in future research leaders who, together, can play a key role in addressing the many challenges we face and the opportunities open to us.
“The ability to attract and retain excellent researchers within Ireland is key to the success of our knowledge economy for the long-term, and the Government of Ireland programme supports this aim. I wish the many researchers supported under the 2024 programme every success with their projects.”
The highly-competitive programme enables the development of high-level skills and knowledge for current and future challenges across a variety of settings, including industry, the public sector, civil society and academia.
All awardees are based in Ireland’s higher education and research-performing organisations. The scheme is a unique facet of the Research Ireland portfolio, facilitating early-career researchers to lead on the development and implementation of their research idea. The investment this year will fund 210 postgraduate scholars and 80 postdoctoral fellows.
Celine FitzGerald, Interim CEO of Research Ireland, said: “Research Ireland is delighted to be making this major investment in new research talent.
“A diverse range of early-career researchers working across a spectrum of disciplines will benefit from this funding, including awardees funded by the programme’s valued partners.
“The 290 awardees have demonstrated through rigorous international assessment the quality of their projects and the capacity to contribute new insights and solutions to technological, scientific, environmental, social and cultural challenges.”
The Bernal Awardees include:
The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholars:
Alsún Ní Mhéalóid (supervisor Jakki Cooney) – Project Title: Biochemical and biophysical characterization of immunomodulatory enzymes (IMEs) produced by Lactobacillus species
Catherine Cleary (supervisor Luis Padrela) - Project Title: Stable dry-powder formulations of monoclonal antibodies for pulmonary delivery (PulmoMAb)
Isabel Andersson (supervisor Eoghan Cunnane) – Project Title: Comprehensive biophysical characterisation of the human testes to inform the development of representative preclinical models
Venkata sai manoj Palabathuni (supervisor Shalini Singh) – Project Title: Two - Dimensional Transition Metal Chalcogenides Based Novel Nanostructures: Control Over Structure, Surface and Electronic Properties for Electrocatalytic Applications
Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellows
Abdul Rehman Akbar (supervisor Tadhg Kennedy) – Project Title: MXene-Enabled Ultra-High Energy Density Lithium-Sulphur Batteries (MX-Battery)
Andrés Felipe Quintero Jaime (supervisor Micheál Scanlon) – Project Title: A Biphasic (Photo)electrochemical Platform to Regenerate the Redox Cofactors NADH and NAD+ to Enable the Use of NADH/NAD+-dependent Enzymatic Biocatalysts at Scale, Economically, and with an Enhanced Turnover Frequency
Ankita Bora (supervisor Kevin Ryan) – Project Title: Development of Alkali Metal-based Copper Chalcogenide Nanocrystals for Energy Conversion Application
Maryam Karimijafari (supervisor Emmet O’Reilly) – Project Title: Recyclable, Biological Piezoelectric Materials for Energy Harvesting from Ambient Vibrations (REVOLUTION)
Sandeep Somvanshi (supervisor Nanasaheb Thorat) – Project Title: Magneto-Plasmonic Nanorods for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectro-Microscopy (SERM) based Multimodal Cancer Theranostics (NANOSERM)
Sara Natalia Moya Betancourt (supervisor Micheál Scanlon) – Project Title: Photoelectrocatalytic CO2 reduction at polarised liquid|liquid interfaces functionalised with metallic nanofilms
Syed Abdul Ahad (supervisor Hugh Geaney) – Project Title: Graphene-based Lithiophilic hosts for ‘Anode-free’ Solid State Batteries (GLASS)