RCSI researchers have been awarded €1.4 million for ground-breaking research projects under the Irish Research Council’s Starting and Consolidator Laureate Awards Programme announced today by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris, TD.

The funding to RCSI is part of an overall investment of almost €24 million by the Irish Research Council in ‘curiosity-driven’ frontier research.

The Laureate programme encompasses two streams of funding, namely ‘starting’ funding for early-career researchers and ‘consolidator’ funding for mid-career researchers. The RCSI awardees are:

Consolidator Laureate Award 

• Dr Tríona Ní Chonghaile, Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, was awarded €599,817 over four years for her project ‘Dynamics of ageing and cancer: a multi-functional study into apoptosis, metabolism and the microenvironment’. Taking age as being the biggest risk factor for cancer, this project will investigate the dynamic effect that age has on tumour biology and treatment responses, in an effort to make this risk factor better understood.

Starting Laureate Awards

• Dr Jamie O'Sullivan, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, was awarded €399,038 over four years for her project: ‘Defining the role VWF-ADAMTS13 axis in haematological cancer associated thrombosis’.
• Dr Mari Ozaki, Molecular Medicine, was awarded €398,450 over four years for her project: ‘Assessing the Pathogenicity of Alveolar Epithelial Telomeres in Pulmonary Fibrosis’.

Professor Fergal O’Brien, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at RCSI, said: “I congratulate Dr Tríona Ní Chonghaile on her Consolidator Laureate Award and Dr Jamie O'Sullivan and Dr Mari Ozaki on their Starting Laureate Awards announced by the Irish Research Council today. Their success in the prestigious Laureate Awards Programme is a testament to the high-quality health sciences research taking place at the university. Their projects will deepen our understanding of factors contributing to cancer, lung disease and blood clots, with the potential to ultimately improve outcomes for patients in Ireland and around the world.”

Announcing the awards, Minister Harris said: I am delighted to announce the winners of the second round of the Irish Research Council’s Starting and Consolidator Laureate Awards Programme and I congratulate each of the awardees. These talented researchers will no doubt contribute hugely towards the world-class excellence that is the bedrock of our research system in Ireland, pushing the boundaries of research knowledge and finding new discoveries that deepen our understanding of the world around us, by looking to the past, questioning the present, and unlocking our future potential.”

Also commenting, Dr Louise Callinan, Director of the Irish Research Council, said: “The 48 researchers who will receive funding under the Starting and Consolidator Laureate Awards Programme have the potential to make ground-breaking advances in their respective fields and to bolster Ireland’s competitiveness in European research funding.”

Further information about the Laureate Awards is available here.