Award supports research platform at Maynooth

As part of its strategic development plans Maynooth University will be using a €1.8 million award received under Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Research Infrastructure programme to fund high-throughput, high sensitivity liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for the detection and enumeration of biomolecules.

This has applications in health, including research into cancer, infectious diseases and inflammatory and neurological disorders, as well as biotechnology, sustainability and chemical sciences.

Professor Sean Doyle of the Department of Biology, who led the successful application for the funding, said that the expansion of the University’s LC-MS facilities would "support a growing cohort of both local and external collaborative (academic/industry) partners, especially in the Technological University sector".

"Mass spectrometry infrastructure is deployable in both academic and industrial settings and has become a disseminated, multi-disciplinary technology which aids identification and quantification of biological and chemical molecules. As such, it will be available to all Irish and overseas researchers -- whether based in academic or industrial settings,” he added.

The application was also supported by Dr Rebecca Owens, Dr Paul Dowling and Dr James Carolan of the Biology department and the Kathleen Lonsdale Institute for Human Health Research.

The funding was part of a €21 million investment in eight research infrastructure projects announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris. Speaking about the announcement, the Minister said: “I am delighted to announce €21 million in funding from my department to support transformative research with both national and international impact. Ireland is committed to investing in high quality, pioneering research. The funding announced today does just that.  

"This support builds and sustains the required infrastructural capacity we need that enables our research community to thrive across the fields of materials science, earth and environmental sciences, energy, engineering, physics, and neuroscience and behaviour."

Welcoming the announcement, Professor Philip Nolan, SFI Director General, said: “The Research Infrastructure Programme funds state-of-the-art research infrastructure to drive excellent and highly collaborative research and innovation. The programme promotes transformative collaborations, in which increased inter-institutional and national sharing of research infrastructure across academia and enterprise makes for better research and accelerated innovation.

“The eight successful projects selected will help us, through research, to prepare for a challenging yet exciting future. The importance of this programme to our research system highlights the need for sustained and increased investment in research infrastructure over the coming decade.”

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