UCC president Dr Michael Murphy; CIT president Dr Brendan Murphy; Dr Kieran Drain, CEO, Tyndall National Institute; and Minister for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock, TD
The Tyndall National Institute and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding on a partnership that is valued at more than €50m to date.
The new agreement will focus on delivering world-class research and industry-relevant graduates to the workforce.
Tyndall, CIT and University College Cork (UCC) succeeded in winning €75m in research funding between them over more than 260 research projects.
The organisations are actively pursuing the Irish Government’s target of winning €1.2bn from the EU’s €70bn Horizon 2020 R&D budget.
Photonics, the study of the generation and manipulation of light, is an important focus of collaboration and research of CIT at Tyndall.
The CIT research group CAPPA (Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis), based at Tyndall, undertakes work on a diverse number of applications across telecommunications, lighting, medicine, agriculture and robotics.
Shine a light
An integral part of the SFI-funded Irish Photonic Integration Centre (IPIC) at Tyndall, CAPPA joins the 100 researchers from four institutes developing new light-enabled technologies.
CAPPA recently announced its participation in the pan-European NISTAS project. Working with Irish industry partners, Epilight Ltd and Open Innovation Partners, and six other European partners, the project aims to develop a new light-based medical instrument for the non-invasive and rapid diagnosis of cardiovascular illnesses that is inexpensive and portable.
By 2050, the population aged over 80 is expected to have increased by 170pc, and cardiovascular diseases are by far the greatest cause of death (more than 50pc) in this age group.
Tyndall National Institute and CIT’s NIMBUS Centre for Embedded Systems Research have worked on several national and international projects which have looked to improve energy efficiency and demand using technologies such as wireless sensor networks and embedded systems, energy harvesting, auto-commissioning and simulation models.
“This partnership is another example of Irish academics and institutions excelling in the area of research and industry innovation,” said Seán Sherlock, TD, Minister for Research and Innovation.
“The work of the CIT and Tyndall partnership has shown what collaboration can achieve at a national and international level.
“The Government has targeted €1.25bn in EU funding under the European Horizon 2020 programme and it will be programmes such as CIT@Tyndall that will play an important role in securing this funding to drive research and innovation both nationally and internationally,” Sherlock said.
