On May 2nd 2017 The SFI Centres are SFI’s flagship programme for funding research in key fields with significant societal and economic impact and feature major investment from industry partners. FutureNeuro will focus on the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics for chronic and rare neurological diseases underpinned by Ireland’s newly established national electronic healthcare records. The Centre will receive €7.8M in direct costs from SFI and is funded for an initial period of 6 years.
Thursday, 7th September 2017: An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, T.D., together with the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald, T.D., and the Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan, T.D., today announced four new world-class Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres, including the RCSI-led FutureNeuro centre. The new SFI Research Centres represent an investment of €74 million from the Government over the next six years, with a further investment of €40 million from industry. The investment will support cutting-edge basic and applied research with strong industry engagement, driving economic benefits and positive societal impact.
The four SFI Research Centres will engage in over 80 collaborations with industry partners; both indigenous and foreign; large and small. Prof. David Henshall and Prof. Jochen Prehn attend the official announcements of the awards
FutureNeuro links innovative neurotherapeutics development with genomic and biomarker-based patient stratification, a national eHealth infrastructure and a nationwide clinical network. Building initially on world-leading pre-clinical and clinical research into epilepsy and motor neurone disease, the FutureNeuro Centre is a scalable platform that will expand quickly to focus on other chronic and rare neurological diseases. FutureNeuro is relevant to the 700,000 people living with a neurological condition in Ireland, with an associated health and societal cost greater than €3 billion euro each year. It will strengthen Ireland’s ability to attract foreign direct investment from companies active in the multi-trillion euro global market for diagnostics, treatments and medtech for neurological diseases, and facilitate indigenous companies seeking to access this market.
Speaking at the launch of the four new SFI Research Centres, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar TD, said: “Investing in leading-edge scientific and technological research is good for our economy and helps us to discover new innovations which can improve our quality of life. Our SFI Research Centres represent a virtuous triangle between government, industry and higher education, and show just what can be achieved when there is a shared vision about reaching your ambitions. These four new SFI Research Centres will be centres of activity where Irish and international researchers are trained and collaboration with private companies is facilitated to deliver new ideas and innovation. This in turn helps to create high-value jobs and drives economic growth and regional development. The SFI Research Centres show the value of investing in today, so we can imagine the world of the future.”
Director of Research and Innovation at RCSI, Professor Ray Stallings, welcomed the announcement saying: “Today’s announcement of the RCSI-led FutureNeuro centre as part of the SFI Research Centres programme is testament to the high quality, impactful and innovative research taking place at RCSI. FutureNeuro represents a phenomenal achievement for Professor David Henshall to lead this centre, along with RCSI co-applicants Professor Gianpiero Cavalleri, Professor Jochen Prehn and all of our academic, hospital and industry partners. By bringing expertise from this wide range of collaborating partners, the FutureNeuro centre will have strong capabilities to carry out research that will ultimately lead to new and innovative treatments for a range of neurological diseases, transforming lives in Ireland and globally.”