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Some of 51��ɫ’s top early career researchers have received funding from the Irish Research Council’s flagship Government of Ireland programmes.

The IRC’s Government of Ireland scheme supports top early-career researchers who are based in Ireland’s higher education and research institutions.

Twenty-five UL research projects have been awarded funding announced by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris.

Among these are:

• Repurposing sustainable carbon fibre for a circular economy
• Examining the imaging methods to improve weather forecasting
• Exploring diet quality in enablers and barriers to eating a healthy diet in Cystic Fibrosis
• Increasing Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine uptake: Strategies used by healthcare professionals for addressing barriers and hesitancy among adolescents

Seven of the UL awards are postdoctoral fellowships while 18 are postgraduate scholarships.

Nationally, the IRC investment is a combined €24.6m which will fund 294 awards in total; 214 postgraduate scholarships and 80 postdoctoral fellowships.

Announcing the funding awards, Minister Harris said: “I am delighted to announce this investment in a new generation of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers under the Irish Research Council’s Government of Ireland programmes. These awards will support the development of the next generation of excellent researchers in Ireland, as they pursue new knowledge at the leading edge of a wide range of topics and disciplines. This investment recognises the huge potential of Ireland’s early-career researchers, and it will support the development of skills, knowledge, and innovation for the challenges of today and the future.”

Vice President Research, Professor Norelee Kennedy said: “We welcome this support for early-career researchers. This support is central to UL’s mission of talent development for excellent research. As part of our Wisdom for Action research strategy we are championing excellent research and contributing towards global challenges.”

Associate Vice President Doctoral College, Professor Ann MacPhail added: “The IRC’s Government of Ireland Scheme continues to maintain prestige for postgraduate researchers while encouraging a quality doctoral education experience. The Doctoral College welcomes collaboration with partner agencies in several of the awards, conscious of the importance of doctoral education equipping the next generation of knowledge workers for the challenging roles they will need to play in their future careers. Such partnerships can inform the need for specific transversal skills and competencies.”

The UL awardees are:

Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowships

• Anne Beaucamp McLoughlin, School of Engineering, who will explore the development of a novel solution for the production, use and repurposing of sustainable carbon fibre for a circular economy. Next generation lignin-based carbon fibres: Diagnostic and recyclability of sustainably based composites materials.
• Aleksandra Serafin, School of Engineering - Development of ionically conductive scaffolds with conductive and mechanical gradients for spinal cord injury repair.
• Balasubramaniam Meichandiran, Department of Chemical Sciences - Development of Advanced Functional Electrolytes for Suppressing SEI Dissolution in High-Performance Sodium-ion Batteries.
• De Van Vo, School of Education - Development of on-line CPD resources for secondary school science teachers in Ireland: Introduction of dynamic and interactive pedagogies and suitable formative tasks for assessing and teaching science inquiry skills.
• Maria Alhajji, Department of Physics - Fundamental In-Situ Investigation of Kinetics, Stress and Morphology of Fe Deposition in Iron Flow Batteries.
• Mariana Silva, School of Engineering - Development of a representative in vitro model of the human testes coupled with automated analysis.
• Suvodeep Sen, Department of Chemical Sciences - Nickel Chalcogenides Hetero-nanostructures: Building Precise Nanocrystals via Colloidal Bottom-up Methods.

Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholars

• Aoife Bowman Grangel, Department of Psychology - Young Carers: Examining the Physical and Mental Health of Young People Providing Informal Care
• Caroline Godard, Department of Politics and Public Administration - What Shapes the European Union’s Gender Equality Policy? Explaining Member States’ Preference Formation and Decision-Making Outcomes of EU Legislation promoting Gender Equality.
• Cian Greaney, School of Allied Health - Exploring diet quality in Cystic Fibrosis (CF) - enablers and barriers to eating a healthy diet in CF.
• Ciarán Courtney O'Toole, School of Medicine - A clinical decision-making approach based on MRI for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
• Darragh O'Sullivan, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences - Effects of Guidelines-Based Resistance Exercise Training on Depressive Symptoms among Young Adults with and without Comorbid Anxiety.
• Éabha Hughes, School of Education - Negotiating the Essentials for Education in Democratic Societies – NEEDS.
• Finn Lannon, Department of Psychology - Unequal Action: Collective Action Responses to Economic Inequality.
• Francisco Duarte, Bernal Institute - C5a peptidase interactions with human Type II and Type III interferons and their potential role in inflammatory disease.
• Gaëlle Clion, School of English, Irish, and Communication - “The Rhetoric of Irish and Continental Defences of Poetry in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: a Humanist Battle?”.
• Maire McGeehan, Department of Psychology - Linking the ‘Big Five’ Personality Traits with Biobehavioural Pathways to Mortality Risk: An Examination of Weight-Related Indicators.
• Margaret Efua Sackey, Department of Nursing and Midwifery - Increasing Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine uptake: Strategies used by healthcare professionals for addressing barriers and hesitancy among adolescents.
• Muireann Kate O'Dea, Department of Psychology - Self-transcendent emotions as a psychological resource against boredom: The key role of meaning in life.
• Roisin Leamy, Department of Chemical Sciences - Development of Heat-stable Therapeutic Proteins as Dried Powdered Formulations (Bio-STABLE).
• Rosemary Daynes Kearney, Department of Psychology - Online Support Groups for Family Caregivers.
• Samantha Glynn, Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences - Exploring how injured athlete's story their experience of mental illness.
• Siobhán O'Reilly, School of Allied Health - The Feasibility of an Intergenerational Arts-Based Programme for the Health and Wellbeing of Grandparents and Their Grandchildren.
• Théophile Bonjour, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance - The Musicality of Social Lives and Identities: Singing Football Fans in France.
• Tiernan Brosnan, Department of Mathematics and Statistics (Met Éireann Postgraduate Scholarship awardee) who will be examining the imaging method known as Inverse Synthetic Aperture RADAR (ISAR), with potential applications for improving weather forecasting.

Fourteen of the Government of Ireland postgraduate awards are scholarships made in collaboration with and funded by partner agencies. The agencies comprise the Environmental Protection Agency, Met Éireann, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, and the Department of Foreign Affairs.