Minister Harris announces 27 grants worth €2.1m for academic and industry collaborations

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, has today announced 27 new academic and industry research collaborations on behalf of Science Foundation Ireland, valued at €2.1million.

The SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship Programme will support the temporary placement of academic researchers in 19 companies. These researchers undertake research projects across a variety of areas, including microbiology, virtual reality (VR), chatbots optimisation, biotechnology, coastal erosion, breast cancer, photodynamic therapy and more. The industry partners on these awards will provide co-funding with a combined value of €1.9 million.

Minister Harris said, “I’m delighted to welcome this fellowship programme bringing together academic researchers and industry partners, to undertake collaborative research that will see them mutually benefit from each other’s invaluable knowledge and expertise. I want to commend Science Foundation Ireland for announcing this funding which will be important in developing some exciting research projects.”

Prof Philip Nolan, Director General SFI, said, “We are delighted to offer this new fellowship programme to academic researchers looking to apply their knowledge in the industry. At SFI, we are keen to be part of a framework that can enable researchers to seek and secure diverse career opportunities in areas such as industry, research funding and administration and Government affairs. The applications to the programme have been incredibly strong and we are pleased to see such a high calibre of projects coming to life.”

Those who are awarded fellowships can take them on a full-time basis between one and 12 months or on a part-time basis, between 2 and 24 months. The maximum award amount funded by SFI is €100,000. The programme was supported by IDA Ireland who see it as an enabler to innovation for their client companies.

The fellowship programme is designed to kick-start postdoctoral academic researchers’ careers in industry and to maximise the impact of their training. The programme also supports academic faculty researchers who want to spend time in industry alongside their academic responsibilities. Simultaneously, the placement will allow industry partners to benefit from their research fellows’ knowledge to collaborate on bringing innovative solutions to industry challenges.

Applications for the 2022 SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship call are now open with two submission deadlines. The first submission deadline is on 18 May 2022; the second submission deadline is on 19 October 2022.

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