€257,000 allocated to 24 UCD projects in STEM Challenge Fund

24 projects have been awarded under the 2023 UCD STEM Challenge Fund. A joint initiative between the three UCD Colleges of Science, Engineering & Architecture, and Health & Agricultural Sciences, the Fund supports highly collaborative and high-impact STEM research. A total of over €257,000 was allocated to projects in this call.

Dr Elaine O’Reilly, Vice-Principal for Research & Innovation at UCD College of Science, said, “We are delighted to announce the 2023 STEM Challenge Funding awardees. The funding initiative represents a significant commitment from the College Principles in the three lead Colleges, and recognition that collaborative research can be hugely impactful.”

“The aim of this initiative is to encourage increased collaboration between exceptional researchers across Schools and Colleges, toward achieving world-class research outputs. It is fantastic to see these truly cross-disciplinary projects commencing. Many congratulations to all successful PIs and Co-Is, we look forward to seeing how these important projects develop.”

A UCD STEM Research Day held earlier this year gave academics the opportunity to put forward specific research challenges that they are trying to overcome, and to identify suitable collaborators. Researchers from all Colleges were invited, and the event provided a networking environment in which they could forge new ideas and build collaborations.

Teams emerging from this engagement were then encouraged to apply for the STEM Challenge Fund, with a view to enabling their research ideas and helping them to reach their full potential. The 24 winning projects for 2023 are:

College of Engineering and Architecture

When circular bioeconomy meets biomedicine: Harnessing the power of microalgae for brewery waste treatment and omega-3 oil production for therapeutic application
Dr Ronald Halim, UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering with Dr Eoin Brennan, UCD School of Medicine, Professor Jeremy Simpson, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and Dr Sara Cardoso Esteves, UCD Algae Group

Enhancing the Performance of Hydrogen-to-Biomethane Process by Using Chemically Engineered Enzyme Cofactors (FeNiX)
Dr Recep Kaan Dereli, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, with Dr Roderick Jones, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Professor James Sullivan, UCD School of Chemistry and Dr Raul Miranda Caso Luengo, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science

The effect of cold atmospheric plasma on the formation of MSC-derived extra-cellular vesicles
Dr Daniela Boehm, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering with Dr Margaret McGee, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Dr Ricardo Simon Carbajo and Dr Polat Goktas, UCD School of Computer Science, Kieran Brennan and Dr Alfonso Blanco, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science

Resolving structure-properties of lipid-based nanomedicines at single nanoparticle level (Resolve-NP)
Dr Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, with Professor Brian Rodriguez, UCD School of Physics, Dr Xiulong Bao, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Dr Eoin Brennan, UCD School of Medicine

Integrated Solar Energy Harvesting and Wireless Communications Solution for Zero-Energy IoT
Dr Xiping Wu, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, with Dr Chiara Cocco, UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy and Jessica Jiang, University of New South Wales

Investigate the involvement of the STimulator of Interferon Genes (STING) pathway in the survival of osteosarcoma cells and assess the potential benefits of targeting this pathway to overcome chemores
Dr Fiona Freeman, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering with Dr Gerald Barry, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine:

Models to aid site-selection of offshore-wind turbines
Dr Jennifer Keenahan, UCD School of Civil Engineering with Dr Philip Cardiff, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Dr James Herterich, Dr Miguel Bustamante and Dr Lennon Ó'Náraigh, UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics and Dr Mark Coughlan, UCD School of Earth Sciences

Portable device to measure oropharyngeal muscle force
Dr Emer Doheny, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with Dr Jayne Carberry, UCD School of Medicine, Dr Eoin O'Cearbhaill, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Professor Madeleine Lowery, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering:

How does invasive mollusc species' shell strength affect their availability as a food source to fish?
Dr Kevin Roche, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering with Dr Jan-Robert Baars, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and Dr Marco Garcia-Vaquero, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science

College of Health and Agricultural Sciences

Development of a pancreatic cancer-on-chip model of immune cell infiltration
Dr Stephen Thorpe, UCD School of Medicine with Mario Manresa,UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Dr Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Dr Carlos Matellan

Weighing in on breast milk bioactives – the impact of breast milk pro-inflammatory bioactives on infant growth and development
Dr Clare Reynolds, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science with Dr Sharleen O'Reilly, Dr Aifric O'Sullivan and Dr Martina Wallace, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science

Accessible solutions for measuring marine microplastics
Dr Mark Pickering, UCD School of Medicine with Dr Kevin Nolan, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Peak performance wearables: When near enough isn’t good enough
Professor Kate Pumpa, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science with Dr Stephen Redmond, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Polat Goktas and Ricardo Simon Carbajo, UCD School of Computer Science and Jocelyn Mara (University of Canberra)

Perfecting an artificial skin
Professor James Jones, UCD School of Medicine with Professor Dermot Brougham, UCD School of Chemistry and Dr Aisling Ní Annaidh, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) derived human blood vessel organoids as a powerful model to investigate vascular development and disease
Dr Eoin Brennan, UCD School of Medicine with Dr John Crean and Dr Jessica Davis, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, and Professor Dermot Brougham, UCD School of Chemistry

Circles within circles: the response of hemp to a bio-fertilizer derived from insect farming and repurposed food waste
Dr Simon Hodge, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science with Dr Susanne Schilling and Dr Rainer Melzer, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science

Developing a workflow to map metatranscriptomic data to metagenomic taxonomical characterisation of the lower airway microbiome to reveal functionally active bacteria in the development of severe asthma
Dr Stephen Lalor, UCD School of Medicine, Professor Séamus Fanning and Dr Guerrino Macori, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science

College of Science

Characterising the motility of Streptococcus gallolyticus, a bloodstream pathogen of colon tumours
Dr Jennifer Mitchell, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science with Dr Dimitri Scholz, Dr Vladimir Lobaskin, UCD School of Physics and Dr Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Nano-formulation of novel Small Synthetic Molecules in Resolution Pharmacology: an innovative approach to tackle Low-grade Inflammation in Atherosclerosis
Dr Monica De Gaetano, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science with Dr Eoin Brennan, UCD School of Medicine and Dr Nan Zhang, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Phantoms4All_UCD: A quality control framework for 3d printed anthropomorphic test objects for medical imaging devices assessment
Dr Irene Hernandez Giron, UCD School of Physics with Dr Saoirse Tracy, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, Professor Denis Dowling, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Dr Sean Cournane, UCD School of Physics

Explore the therapeutic potential of seaweed extracts for Alzheimer's disease-related neurodegeneration
Dr Derek Costello, with Dr Cormac Murphy, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, Dr Alison Reynolds, UCD School of Veterinary Medicine and Micheal MacMonagail

Green tech to address persistent environmental contaminants
Assoc Professor James Rice, UCD School of Physics with Dr Veronica Sofianos, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering and Dr Marcus Baumann, UCD School of Chemistry

Efficient training algorithms for deep learning on traditional and neuromorphic architectures
Dr Marco Viola, UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics with Dr Arjun Pakrashi, UCD School of Computer Science and Dr Vikram Pakrashi, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Rigid fluorescent boronic-acid peptide probes as novel potential tools to visualise changing glycosylation within the Golgi apparatus
Dr Joseph Byrne with Dr Aniello Palma, UCD School of Chemistry, Professor Jeremy Simpson, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science and Dr Hannah Crory.