UCC projects receive more than €3 million in funding

A Cork university has been awarded more than €3 million in funding for emerging research talent, it was announced this week.

The persecution of religious minorities in Soviet Ukraine, the economic aspects of wind farms and role of the gut in influencing memory, mood and motivation are among the research projects at University College Cork (UCC) that have received more than €3.2 million in funding under a new programme to support Ireland’s emerging research talent.

The SFI-IRC Pathway programme is new collaborative initiative between Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC) to support early career research across all disciplines and to encourage interdisciplinary approaches.

The awards will enable postdoctoral researchers to conduct independent research for a 4 year period and will provide funding for a postgraduate student who will be primarily supervised by the awardee.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris said: “I am thrilled to announce these exciting new research projects, which allow researchers to advance their work and further develop their careers towards becoming the next generation of research leaders in Ireland.”

Commenting Professor John Cryan, Vice-President for Research & Innovation at UCC said: “I’d like to congratulate these wonderful researchers on receiving these prestigious awards.

“Their diverse projects share the same goal of trying to address critical societal problems for a sustainable future”.

The full list of UCC awardees are:

• Dr Damien Haberlin - Damien is using animal tracking technology to investigate interactions between elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) and offshore renewable energy devices

• Dr Maria Rodriguez Aburto - Maria is studying whether gut microbes modulate neurovascular behaviour during brain development

• Dr Linda Katona - Linda’s research focus is on how gut microbes influence social interactions, memory, mood and motivation

• Dr Tatiana Vagramenko - Tatiana’s proposal is to study previously classified information on the state persecution of religious minorities in Soviet Ukraine

• Dr Peter Deeney - Peter’s project focuses on the economic aspects of wind farms, and he will develop decision support tools to assess a fair price for a wind farm

• Dr Sean Kenny - Sean’s project will investigate how Irish public finances have responded to external economic shocks in the past to help provide a framework for policy makers to base future borrowing and spending decisions