A new €13 million research programme, based in Trinity, will see 71 postdoctoral candidates employed across a number of Irish universities and colleges from next June onwards.
The new research programme, called Edge, will be co-funded and hosted by three Trinity-based Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) centres. The research the Edge fellows will carry out will be in the area of ICT, and will work with Connect and the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (Amber) research centre, both of which are based in Trinity, as well as the Adapt Centre for Digital Content Technology,
These three centres together pledged €7 million to the fellowship program. €6 million for Edge will also come from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie initiative, part of the the EU Commission’s Horizon 2020 fund.
Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Strategy and Communications at SFI, said in a press statement: “This is a great example of SFI Research Centres working together to leverage non-exchequer funding for Irish research.”
Amber, which is based in Trinity, encourages collaboration between scientists across Ireland into the development and research of advanced materials. Connect, which is funded by SFI, currently links together 10 Irish universities and research institutions and aims to develop and design new methods of telecommunication.
Speaking in a press release about the launch, Minister for Skills and Training, Halligan said: “The Edge programme will develop world leading researchers in this field and help Ireland compete for jobs and investment in the future.”
Halligan went on to say that Edge’s focus on advanced training and career development is “an attractive feature”, and added that he was glad to see that Edge is “emphasising the importance of public engagement”.
Like Adapt, the new fellows will be based largely in Trinity, but will help facilitate research between various Irish universities and colleges. The Adapt centre, which was launched in January 2016, currently has 120 researchers working within it and has received industry support from the likes of Microsoft, Intel and PayPal.
Edge Programme Manager at Trinity, Richard Twohig, said in the press release that he expects to see “serious competition for these positions”.
“We are seeking to attract talented individuals to work alongside Ireland’s best researchers and tech industry partners”, said Twohig, adding that “the research topics are at the intersection of three exciting areas: advanced materials, digital content and telecommunications”.
Dean of Research in Trinity, Prof John Boland, welcomed the programme. In a press release, Boland said “this represents a significant opportunity to attract the best international talent into this important research area”.
Director of the Connect centre, Prof Linda Doyle, who is leading the initiative, said in a press release that the new Edge fellows “will strengthen our existing research groups and provide new collaboration opportunities with industry partners and other research institutes internationally”.
Doyle went on to say that there has already been “strong interest from high-calibre postdoctoral researchers from around the world”.
Edge Fellows will begin working in June 2017, with applications for the positions, which opened in September, to remain open until December 1st.
