The US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership is a unique initiative involving funding agencies across three jurisdictions: United States of America (USA), Republic of Ireland (RoI) & Northern Ireland (NI), in which health is one of the priority thematic areas. As part of the Partnership Programme, the governments and relevant research funding agencies within the Partnership contribute to the research costs of researchers based in their jurisdictions.
Applications for funding are made through a highly competitive grant process operated by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). A ‘single-proposal, single-review’ mechanism is facilitated by NIH who will accept submissions from tri-jurisdictional (USA, NI and ROI) teams to a number of their existing R01 funding programmes. All proposals submitted under the auspices of the Partnership must have significant research involvement from researchers in all three jurisdictions, and demonstrate added value of the tri-partite work.
The UK Medical Research Council works in partnership with HSC R&D Division to support this programme, and has, to date, contributed funding to the Northern Ireland costs. This arrangement continues on a case-by-case basis.
These prestigious awards can bring significant longer-term benefits in terms of securing funding for follow-on research and indeed in building a reputation for excellence.
Awards made under the US-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme:
Study Title
|
Chief Investigator (NI)
& Other Partners
|
Dates
|
HSC R&D Cost*
|
Co-funding
|
---|---|---|---|---|
A functional genomics pipeline for genetic discovery in diabetic kidney disease |
Dr Gareth McKay & Prof Peter Maxwell (Queen's University Belfast) Profs Jose Florez & Joel Hirschhorn (Harvard Medical & Mass General Hosp.) Prof Catherine Godson (University College Dublin) |
2022-2027 | £517,493 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Treating Primary Aldosteronism-Induced Hypertension via Microwave Thermal Therapy |
Professor Liam McDaid
(Ulster University)
Professor Punit Prakash
(Kansas State University, USA)
Professor Michael Conall Dennedy
(NUI Galway)
|
2021-2024 | £389,995 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Social Circumstances and Epigenomics Promoting Health in Three Countries |
Dr Amy Jayne McKnight
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Professor Eileen M. Crimmins
(University of Southern California, USA)
Dr Jessica Faul
(University of Michigan, USA)
Professor Rose Anne Kenny
(Trinity College Dublin)
|
2020-2024 | £529,748 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Uncovering the neural architecture underlying decisions abstracted from movements |
Dr. KongFatt Wong-Lin
(Ulster University)
Prof. Michael Shadlen,
(Columbia University, New York)
Assist. Prof. Stephan Bickel
(Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. NY)
Assoc. Prof. Simon Kelly
(University College Dublin)
Assoc. Prof. Redmond O’Connell,
(Trinity College Dublin)
|
2020-2025 | £500,000 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Cold Plasma to Treat Post-Surgical Orthopedic Infection: A tripartite USA/Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland Consortium |
Professor Brendan Gilmore
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Dr Paula Bourke
(Dublin Institute of Technology)
Professor Theresa A Freeman
(Thomas Jefferson University, USA)
|
2020-2024 | £579,985 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Professor Alan Stitt
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Professor Ana Rodriguez
(NYU School of Medicine)
Professor Thomas Walther
(University College Cork)
|
2020-2025 | £511,814 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB | |
Food-Based Biomarkers, Diet Quality, And Cardiometabolic Health. |
Professor Jayne Woodside
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Professor Qi Sun
(Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston)
Professor Lorraine Brennan
(University College Dublin)
|
2019-2024 | £533,000 | MRC, NIH, SFI, HRB |
Study Of Queuosine Salvage And Function In Eukaryotes: A Forgotten Micronutrient |
Dr Brian Green
(Queen's University Belfast)
Prof. Valérie de Crécy-Lagard
(University of Florida, USA)
Prof. Juan Alfonzo
(Ohio State University, USA)
Assoc. Prof. Manal Swairjo
(San Diego State University, USA)
Assoc. Prof. Vincent P. Kelly
(Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Prof. Stephen Connon
(Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
Assist. Prof. Mike Southern
(Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
|
2019-2023 | £425,000 | NIH, MRC, SFI, HRB |
Systems Modeling of Tumor Heterogeneity and Therapy Response in Colorectal Cancer |
Prof Daniel Longley
(Queen's University Belfast)
Dr Fiona Ginty
(GE Global Research)
Prof Jochen Prehn
(Royal College of Surgeons)
|
2017-2022 |
£664,307 | SFI, HRB, NIH & MRC |
Translational Analyses of Ingestive Behavior after Gastric Bypass |
Prof Barbara Livingstone
(Ulster University)
Professor Alan Spector
(Florida State University)
Professor Carel le Roux
(University College Dublin)
|
2016-2020 |
£564,000 | HRB, NIH & MRC |
|
Prof Peter Maxwell
(Queen's University Belfast)
Dr Joel Hirschhorn
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Prof Catherine Godson
(University College Dublin)
|
2016-2021
|
£750,000
|
SFI, HRB, NIH & MRC
|
|
Dr Tim Curtis
(Queen's University Belfast)
Dr Bala Ambati
(University of Utah)
Dr Phil Cummins
(Dublin City University)
|
2016-2020
|
£653,977
|
SFI, NIH & MRC
|
|
Prof Christopher Scott
(Queen’s University Belfast)
Prof Robert Straubinger
(University at Buffalo, NY)
Dr Robert O’Connor & Dr Niall Barron
(Dublin City University)
|
2015-2020
|
£750,000
|
SFI, NIH & MRC
|
|
Prof Stuart Elborn
(Queen's University Belfast)
Prof Richard Boucher
(University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Prof Gerry McElvaney
(Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland)
|
2008-2015
|
£1,726,016
|
SFI, NIH & MRC
|
|
Prof Peter Maxwell
(Belfast HSC Trust & Queen's University Belfast)
Dr Joel Hirschhorn
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Prof Catherine Godson
(University College Dublin)
|
2008-2013
|
£1,217,759
|
SFI, NIH & MRC
|
* final costs subject to change
SFI – Science Foundation Ireland (RoI)
HRB – Health Research Board (RoI)
MRC – UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council (UK)
NIH – National Institutes of Health (US)