Five research projects at NUI Galway have been awarded over €600,000 to develop new technologies to fight cancer, treat high blood pressure, create an autonomous lifeguards and more.
Minister for Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys announced €4.5 million in funding for 38 research projects this week, to help projects backed by the government to become viable businesses.
The grant money being awarded is part of Science Foundation Ireland’s Technology Innovation Development Award programme which provides third-level researchers with development funding and entrepreneurship training.
Dr Eimear Dolan, a biomedical engineer, has been awarded €129,995 for her ImmunoCell project, an implantable device to help your immune system fight ovarian cancer tumours.
Professor Michael Madden and Dr Enda Barrett have been granted €124,367 to further their autonomous lifeguard and search system.
ALIVE (Autonomous LIfeguard and Vision Environment) uses computer vision and machine learning techniques to locate people in noisy aquatic environments.
Dr Adrienne Gorman is developing a new therapy to treat triple negative breast cancer using protein inhibitors for which he has been awarded €128,440.
With aquaculture and fish farming becoming such a massive industry, Professor Mark Johnson’s Blooms2Feeds+2 project is creating processed seaweeds to blend into salmon feeds.
The aim of this project is to create better fish welfare and nutritional value for the humans eating them, earning a grant of €123,956.
And lastly Dr Haroon Zafar has been awarded €91,205 for the ‘Smart Renal Denervation’ project creating a medical device to provide real-time feedback to clinicians to verify the successful operation of Renal denervation to treat high blood pressure not controlled by medication.
The researchers will will use this funding to demonstrate if their applied research project is technically feasible, and has the potential for further commercial development.
Professor Lokesh Joshi, Vice President of Research at NUI Galway said “Our university has a great track record in knowledge transfer and research commercialisation.
“Our five new projects demonstrate this drive to maximize the impact of ideas and technology generated by our research,” he added.
“The depth and breadth of innovative technologies reflect the strengths of our region such as ICT, MedTech and marine.”
Minister Humphreys said that these awards will help ensure that Ireland maintains its place as a leader in cutting edge research.
