Partnering with UL and Lero, Limerick has been awarded a substantial grant in the biggest EU Research and Innovation Funding programme, Horizon 2020, for a smart cities and communities project worth €6.5m to the city.  The +CityxChange (positive city exchange) is a smart city project submitted by a consortium of 32 partners including Limerick City and County Council from 11 countries. The fullscale project will receive €20 million in funding from Horizon 2020 which has nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years.

Michael Kennedy, Director SPDS Ltd., Ron Bell OBE, Executive Director of ESC Ltd. and Peter Davern, Conference Chair

The Department of Chemical Sciences (CS) and the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), a Science Foundation Ireland funded centre, based at the University of Limerick (UL), collaborated to offer a 1-day industry-focused Master Class in Process Safety, hosted by the Bernal Institute.

The event brought together internationally and nationally recognised experts in the domain to share their knowledge and experience in the safe day-to-day running of pharmaceutical and chemical production plants.

Prof. Kieran Hodnett, University of Limerick and Dr Denise Croker, Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC)

The annual conference for the British Association for Crystal Growth was held for the first time in the Mid-West at the University of Limerick. It was organised by the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded centre hosted at UL.

The Government recently flagged 4 planned funds in support of Project Ireland 2040 National Development Framework. The proposed funds for urban regeneration, rural development, climate action and disruptive technologies are expected to total €4 billion and due to open in June 2018.

l-r Conor Mc Carthy, CONFIRM; Jacqueline Kehoe, Cork Institute of Technology; Brendan Sheppard, CEO SmartFactory; Dirk Pesch, Nimbus Centre CIT; Mark Whelan, Enterprise Ireland; Anthony Kelly, Smart Factory

SmartFactory - a leading provider of solutions that add intelligence into manufacturing processes to drive continuous improvement, knowledge transfer and data-based decision making – last week announced a new release of software for its Work Area Performance System (WAPS). This is also a first commercial partnership for CONFIRM – the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre with the NIMBUS centre at Cork Institute of Technology.

Dr. Daniel Riordan, Lero researcher IT Tralee and Mr John Rice, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Bon Secours Hospital

Lero, the SFI Irish Software Research Centre and IT Tralee have announced a €223,500 programme with Bon Secours Hospital Tralee (BSHT) which could advance the future use of robotics to perform hip replacement operations.

The initial goal of the initiative, which is backed by Science Foundation Ireland, will be to develop a more accurate way for surgeons to place a hip joint so as to minimise a patient’s hospital stay and avoid re-admittance due to issues arising from the operation. IT Tralee is looking to hire a PhD student to join the five-person research team.

Prof. Gavin Walker, SSPC Co-Director, Prof. Caitriona O'Driscoll, UCC, Prof. Donal O’Shea, RCSI, Dr Denise Croker, SSPC GM, Dr Constantina Papatriantafyllopoulou, NUIG and Dr Anthony M. Reilly, UCD.

Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), a Science Foundation Ireland funded Centre, have announced 5 fully-funded PhD positions with their national teams based in the University of Limerick, University College Cork, Dublin City University, Royal College of Surgeons and National University of Ireland Galway.

Professor Stack, Foundation Chair of Medicine at Graduate Entry Medical School

One in four people in the Irish health system have elevated blood levels of uric acid, according to a new study led by researchers at the Graduate Entry Medical School (GEMS), University of Limerick. The largest study of its kind in Ireland has found that Uric Acid levels here increased at an ‘alarming’ rate from 2006 to 2014.

Uric acid has been linked with a range of conditions from gout to kidney disease.