Thomas Lynch, Chair of Molecular Medicine Ireland, is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Graham Love as new Chief Executive of Molecular Medicine Ireland (MMI). Dr Love will take up the position at the end of February.

Welcoming Dr Love's appointment Lynch said, "The Board of MMI is confident that Dr Love's specialist expertise and experience will help MMI to build on existing collaborative programmes to increase Ireland's capacity in clinical and translational research and benefit healthcare and the economy. We view Dr Love as an outstanding appointment in view of his academic qualification in clinical pharmacology and his distinguished career in Accenture and Science Foundation Ireland which has become a mainstream state agency despite its short history and the uniquely challenging times for the public exchequer."

Dr Graham Love said, "I look forward to driving the clinical and translational research agenda at the heart of MMI. Bridging research and improved health outcomes via its partner institutions and teaching hospitals is a great opportunity for Ireland."

Dr Love is currently Director of Policy and Communications incorporating Discover, Science and Engineering at Science Foundation Ireland. He has held a number of senior management roles at SFI including Interim Director General, Special Advisor to the Director General, Head of Strategy and Programme Implementation.

Dr Love graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Pharmacology from University College Dublin followed by a PhD in Vascular Cell Biology in 1997. He joined the management consulting firm, Accenture, where he worked with multinational clients across Europe before joining SFI in 2007.

The mission of Molecular Medicine Ireland is to mobilise the strengths of the five partner institutions - National University of Ireland Galway, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University College Cork, University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin and their associated academic hospitals - to build a national system to coordinate, support and promote translational and clinical research that will facilitate the translation of advances in science into better health outcomes for patients.

Since its establishment in 2002, and working with its partner academic institutions, public bodies, funders and industry, MMI has successfully developed and delivered collaborative programmes in clinical and translation research and education and training. These have included:

• The MMI coordinated Clinician Scientist Fellowship Programme and the Clinical and Translational Research Scholars Programme both funded by the Government's Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions
• The support, advice and training provided by the Irish Clinical Research Infrastructure Network with the central objective of creating a harmonised and coordinated clinical research infrastructure in Ireland; and
• The Wellcome Trust/Health Research Board Dublin Centre for Clinical Research, a city-wide clinical research network involving the RCSI Clinical Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital, the UCD Clinical Research Centre at Mater Misericordae and St Vincent's University Hospitals, and the new clinical research facility at St James's Hospital currently under construction and due to open in spring 2013.