Nine projects led by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, in collaboration with enterprise and employer partners, were among those awarded funding under the latest round of the Enterprise Partnership Schemes (EPS) announced by the Irish Research Council (IRC).

The IRC EPS provides postgraduate and postdoctoral candidates, hosted by a research-performing institution, with the opportunity to collaborate with an enterprise or employer on a research project of mutual interest. More than €8 million in funding will be shared among the selected 79 projects, under the Scheme’s funding strands.

The RCSI projects awarded EPS funding for the 2022-23 period are:

Enterprise Partnership Scheme (Postgraduate)

• Erva Ghani in partnership with Epilepsy Ireland:'“miR-CDD: Molecular mechanisms, therapeutic targets and biomarkers for CDKL5 Deficiency Disorder (CDD)'
• John David Damalerio in partnership with Epilepsy Ireland: 'EPIVIEWS: Exploring Patient Impact & Value in Epilepsy Wearables for Seizure Monitoring'

Enterprise Partnership Scheme (Postdoctoral)

• Jonathan Briody in partnership with Diabetes Ireland Research Alliance: 'Estimating the population health impact and cost-effectiveness of implementing evidence-based diabetes care and prevention in Ireland'
• Radharani Benvenutti, in partnership with Epilepsy Ireland: 'Circadian biomarkers in pre-clinical and clinical Dravet Syndrome'

Employment-Based Postgraduate Programme

• Sarah-Jane Byrne in partnership with Beaumont Hospital: 'The emerging role of a Stroke Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in Early Supported Discharge: Developing a pathway for Stroke Nursing and Model of Care for Stroke patients in the community'
• Emma Devoy Flood in partnership with Beaumont Hospital: 'The Development, Implementation and Evaluation of an eHealth support tool to enhance quality of life and survivorship in head and neck cancer patients'
• Croía Loughnane in partnership with Empeal: 'Coach Connect: Using AI and Machine Learning to Augment a coach-led digital health platform (a community evaluation) designed to promote whole health and wellbeing in the community'
• David Keegan in partnership with Beaumont Hospital: 'Utilising Data Science to Maximise the Contribution of Histocompatibility & Immunogenetics to Transplant Outcomes'
• Mairead Skally in partnership with Beaumont Hospital: 'The Reality of Controlling the Three Cs: coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), carbapenemase-producing enterobacterales (CPE) and clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in the Acute Hospital Setting. Analysing Real-Life Data to Drive Improvements'

Professor Fergal O’Brien, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, RCSI, said: “Working in close partnership with enterprise, including public-sector agencies and non-governmental organisations, is central to our translational research strategy at RCSI. I welcome the co-funding announced today under the Irish Research Council’s enterprise programmes which will facilitate important collaborative health research projects.

“I congratulate the successful recipients, and I look forward to the outcomes of their projects that includes the development of a digital coaching tool to improve health and wellbeing and research to inform improved healthcare for people with epilepsy, diabetes, stroke, head and neck cancer, transplant patients and infections in acute hospital settings.”

Enterprise or employment partners interested in participating in the next phase of the programme should contact the Office of Research and Innovation to discuss partnership opportunities within RCSI.

Dr Louise Callinan, Interim Director of the Irish Research Council, said: “This is the eighteenth year of our Enterprise Partnership Schemes and we’re delighted at their continued success in linking excellent research talent with enterprise and innovation in Ireland. The projects selected this year focus on highly important topics, such as suicide and disease prevention, health promotion and energy recovery in data centres, and they demonstrate the broad range of cutting-edge research being conducted by high-calibre researchers that solves challenges and creates opportunities for partner enterprises. We’re also delighted to be partnering with Google Ireland for the second year on the Online Content Safety Scholarship, which is supporting research highly relevant to meeting the ongoing challenge of building a safer and more trusted internet.”

Awardees of the Enterprise Partnership Scheme for Postgraduate researchers and the Employment-Based Postgraduate Programme are to receive funding of €110,000 each, while recipients of the Enterprise Partnership Scheme for Postdoctoral researchers are being awarded funding of €99,000 each.