A joint funding investment of over €7 million was announced today through the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme. This tripartite research and development (R&D) partnership between the United States of America (USA), Republic of Ireland (RoI) and Northern Ireland (NI) increases collaborations among researchers and industry across the three jurisdictions.
Four awards have been funded under the programme, supporting approximately 20 research positions. The projects funded include research on communications networks and healthcare.
Professor Niamh Nowlan, Full Professor of Biomedical Engineering at UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a fellow of the Conway Institute, is lead applicant on one of the four funded projects, ‘Effects of Maternal Exercise on Fetal Akinesia-Impaired Bone and Joint Development’. She will work with partner institutions Ulster University and University of Pennsylvania, to provide new insights into fetal akinesia and potentially identify maternal exercise as a therapeutic intervention.
The funding agencies involved in today’s announcement are Research Ireland and the Health Research Board (HRB) in RoI, the Department for the Economy (DFE) and the Health & Social Care R&D Division (HSC R&D) in NI, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in USA.
Celine FitzGerald, Interim CEO of Research Ireland, said: “Research Ireland congratulates the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme award recipients - their innovative projects in the areas of healthcare and telecommunications will provide mutual benefit to societies and economies across all three jurisdictions. Strong international research partnerships are vital to address the global challenges of our time. Through this significant tri-partite investment, the US-Ireland R&D Partnership continues to support and encourage world-class, impactful and collaborative research projects between our countries.”
“The US-Ireland R&D Partnership Program provides a unique opportunity to advance world-class technological innovations,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. “Working together, we are furthering a global ecosystem of innovation — one that not only responds to today’s challenges but anticipates the needs of tomorrow.”
Mark Lee, Director of Higher Education at Northern Ireland’s Department for the Economy, said “International research collaborations are key to building a strong research and innovation landscape in Northern Ireland to deliver on the Economy Minister’s vision of a regionally balanced, net zero economy which supports good jobs and higher productivity. The US Ireland R&D Partnership is an important flagship programme bringing world class researchers together across the north and south of Ireland and the US to collaborate on ground-breaking scientific research that delivers benefits for all.”
Mairead O’Driscoll, CEO of the Health Research Board, said: “Collaboration is key when tackling grand challenges in relation to health. The US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme funds essential research to improve health and advance care for people throughout Ireland, Northern Ireland and the United States.”
US-Ireland R&D Programme project details:
Title: Effects of Maternal Exercise on Fetal Akinesia-Impaired Bone and Joint Development
Lead RoI institution: University College Dublin
Lead applicant: Niamh Nowlan
Partner Institutions: Ulster University & University of Pennsylvania
Co-applicants: Gareth Davison & Joel Boerckel
Value of award:
RoI: €907,950
NI: £523064
US: $513183
Mechanical forces exerted by foetal movement during development influence skeletal morphogenesis. Fetal akinesia (insufficient movement), caused by low amniotic fluid volume, breech position or impaired muscle development, can cause skeletal disorders such as hip dysplasia, arthrogryposis, and impaired bone development. The latest findings by this group of applicants suggest that maternal exercise could serve as a therapeutic intervention. To accomplish this, there is a need to understand when and how maternal exercise rescues akinesia-impaired bone and joint development. The aims of this proposal are to determine the cells that respond to timed maternal exercise during akinesia-impaired limb development and to define the underlying signalling mechanisms. This will provide new insights into fetal akinesia and potentially identify maternal exercise as a therapeutic intervention.
Title: Discriminative Adversarial Networks that are Generic, Efficient, and Robust for IoT Malware Detection (DANGER-IoT)
Lead RoI institution: University College Cork
Lead applicant: Utz Roedig
Partner Institutions: Queen’s University Belfast & Rochester Institute of Technology
Co-applicants: Niall McLaughlin & Matthew Wright
Value of award:
RoI: €447,567
NI: £278232
US: $600,000
This project is focused on detecting malware on ‘internet of things’ (IoT) devices (e.g. sensors, actuators, appliances and machines). Malware detection on traditional PCs, servers and mobile devices is relatively mature, with solutions based on machine learning having become industry standard. These solutions cannot be directly applied to IoT devices due to the devices being very heterogeneous in type and having low power requirements, among other reasons. Existing malware models are also vulnerable to adversarial evasion attacks – where carefully crafted inputs are fed in that can confuse/fool even state of the art malware models. Discriminative Adversarial Networks that are General, Efficient, and Robust for IoT Malware Detection (DANGER-IoT) will build upon the success of previous work by the researchers to create the first generation of malware detection models that are practical and effective for IoT systems.
Title: Fungibility in Mobile Networks for Resilient 6G
Lead applicant: Indrakshi Dey
Lead RoI institution: South East Technological University
Partner Institutions: Queens University Belfast & Virginia tech
Co-applicants: Michalis Matthaiou & Joao Santos
Value of award:
RoI: €451,814
NI: £299,876
US: $552.893
This proposal is focused on transforming resilience in the next generation (6G) of mobile networks. It addresses the concept of ‘fungibility’ - where networks are capable of reallocating internal resources in response to changes, such as the loss of function of one part of the network (e.g. due to a cyberattack). The research is focused on three main areas: fungibility of algorithms and resources/components within networks, security of future radio access technologies (which are the underlying physical connection methods for any given communications network), and on the ‘topology’ of mobile networks – their ability to reconfigure or adapt their physical or logical structure without significant disruption in function or performance.
Title: MAEVE: Microbiota mediated flavonoid metabolites for cognitive health
Lead RoI institution: Teagasc
Lead applicant: Catherine Stanton
Partner Institutions: Ulster University & University of California Los Angeles
Co-applicants: Chris Gill & Arpana Gupta
Value of award:
RoI: €908,996
NI: £459,256
US: $1,563,756
The proposal aims to test the hypothesis that a high dietary intake of polyphenols (PPs) by elderly subjects with enhanced Alzheimer’s disease risk would maintain healthier brain and cognitive functions as well as having beneficial gut microbiota effects. The potential impact of dietary PPs is proposed to be assessed using multiple approaches such as animal models, imaging, assessment of cognitive function and inflammatory status as well as profiling of the gut microbiome and its metabolites.
Since its launch in 2006, the US-Ireland R&D Partnership has funded 98 partnership projects with a combined government investment of €158 million. This unique funding initiative aims to increase the level of collaborative R&D, generating valuable discoveries and innovations.
For more information about the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme, visit the programme webpage.
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