A joint funding investment of over €8.3m million has been allocated to six projects through the latest round of the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme. Two of the projects are led by UCD.
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. Since its launch in 2006, the Programme has funded 106 partnership projects with a combined government investment in excess of €150 million. This unique funding initiative aims to increase the level of collaborative R&D, generating valuable discoveries and innovations.
UCD Projects:
Production-Application-Environmental Impact of Biodegradable Polymers Based on Polyhydroxyalkanoates
Lead Applicant: Professor Kevin O’Connor, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Conway Institute, (opens in a new window)BiOrbic; with Co-applicants Professor John Wendell McGrath and Dr Jeffrey Bates.
Lead RoI Institution: UCD, with Partner Institutions Queen’s University Belfast and University of Utah
Value of Award:
RoI: €454,651
NI: £299,852
US: $537,639
The project aims to understand the fate of microplastics generated from biodegradable plastics. Around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced globally each year, much of which persists in the environment for centuries as it fragments into microplastics. While biodegradable plastics are increasingly proposed as a solution, their long-term environmental behaviour is poorly understood. This research will examine how material design and degradation influence microplastic formation, helping to inform the development of genuinely sustainable plastic alternatives that reduce long-term environmental harm.
Ultra-processed Foods, Diet Quality, and Cardiometabolic Health: An Inter-disciplinary TransAtlantic Collaborative Project; Lead Applicant: Professor Lorraine Brennan, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, UCD Conway Institute: with Co-applicants: Professor Jayne Woodside and Dr Qi Sun.
Lead RoI Institution: UCD, with Partner Institutions Queen’s University Belfast and Harvard University
Value of Award:
RoI: €900,230
NI: £530,470
US: $843,047
The project will examine how ultra-processed foods (UPFs) affect heart health. While UPFs make up a large part of modern diets, particularly in the United States, not all UPFs may have the same impact on health. The researchers will compare different UPFs within healthy dietary patterns to better understand their effects on human health. The findings are anticipated to strengthen the evidence base for dietary guidelines and help inform more effective public health policies.
The six funded projects span 10 higher education institutions in the three jurisdictions. The funding agencies involved in this latest round 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.
The 10 collaborating institutions are: University of Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and Tyndall National Institute in the Republic of Ireland; Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland; and University of Utah, University of California Riverside, University of Florida, Michigan State University and Harvard University in the USA.
This article was first published on 30 April by UCD.
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