The project falls under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership, a tri-jurisdictional initiative founded in 2006 with the aim of supporting collaborative research projects involving partners in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the US.
A new all-island research programme will support Irish-US collaboration between researchers, innovators and industry partners through a $20m investment.
The ‘research translation and commercialisation initiative’ is a trilateral project funded by Research Ireland, Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy and the US National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP).
The project falls under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership, a tri-jurisdictional initiative founded in 2006 with the aim of supporting collaborative research projects involving partners in Ireland, Northern Ireland and the US by bringing together government departments, funding agencies, academic institutions and industry to address shared scientific, economic and societal challenges.
The initiative, which will be open to current and past tripartite partnership awardee teams who have received their US support from NSF, is also part-funded through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund and supported by InterTradeIreland, the cross-border trade and business development body for all-island economic collaboration.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin, TD said: “The US-Ireland R&D Partnership is a powerful example of how sustained international cooperation delivers real benefits for our people, our economy and our research community.
“This new investment builds on 20 years of success and will help ensure that cutting-edge research developed across the island of Ireland and the United States can be translated into real-world solutions and high-value jobs.”
The new initiative plans to identify research under the themes of cybersecurity, energy and sustainability, telecommunications, sensors and sensor networks, and nanoscale science and engineering, and was established as an expansion activity to support the translation of research outputs from the US-Ireland R&D Partnership into market-ready products, services and solutions.
First minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O’Neill said: “This new transatlantic initiative represents a significant opportunity to turn excellent research into real benefits for our economy and our communities, while strengthening the strong relationships we have built with partners in the US and across this island.”
The collaboration is also targeting the development of bespoke training programmes for affiliated researchers to help them to upskill in advancing their work along the translation and commercialisation path, with further funding opportunities available to selected participating teams to kickstart the creation of research-related start-ups.
“For nearly 20 years, the US-Ireland R&D Partnership has not only jointly funded numerous trilateral science and engineering research projects, it has also served as a model of how to successfully facilitate cross-border research and development,” said Brian Stone, the NSF’s chief of staff.
“Today’s announcement from NSF TIP, the Government of Ireland and Department for the Economy marks a natural next step in our transatlantic partnership, expanding our collaboration to accelerate the translation of projects into businesses and solutions, delivering significant scientific, economic and real-world benefits.”
The US-Ireland R&D Partnership has supported 107 collaborative research projects to date through $196m in combined government funding for research projects across an array of sectors. Examples include: research on next-generation communications and 6G networks conducted by University College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast and Purdue University; work on sustainable animal health solutions by University of Tennessee, University College Cork and Queen’s University; and colorectal cancer research carried out by GE Global Research, Queen’s University and Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login