In an email to The University Times, Associate Dean of Research and Professor in Astrophysics, Peter Gallagher has revealed that Trinity has received €2.4 million in funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) with College “delighted” with the development, according to Gallagher.
Gallagher stated that the funding will go towards supporting the “purchase of equipment in areas such as science, medicine, computing and engineering”. Gallagher also said that the College has recently ran a call for proposals for funding and has so far received “over 60 applications” which, according to Gallagher, highlights “the need for investment in equipment in College”. College will announce the recipients of fundings over the coming weeks.
Gallagher also mentioned that College is “particularly encouraging” staff that have been newly appointed to apply for funding, such as Ussher Assistant Professors, as such funding will enable these newly members of staff to “build research groups to do the very best research”.
“We need to continue to invest in equipment in order to keep our researchers competitive on the international stage”, he added.
The funding comes from SFI’s budget surplus from last year which, instead of being returned to the State, was divided up among Irish higher education institutions to be spent on research equipment and network infrastructure.
The funding is the latest in a series of SFI grants to Trinity, following on from SFI co-funding a €13 million research programme, entitled Edge, launched this past October, combining three Trinity-based SFI research centres which raised non-exchequer sourced funding along with SFI for ICT, digital technology and bio-engineering research.
In August 2016, six Trinity researchers also received a total of €9 million in funding from SFI as part of a wider grant of €40 million given to various Irish higher education institutions.
