Northern Ireland’s Employment and Learning Minister Dr Stephen Farry announced £3.5m of research funding for seven research projects involving Queen’s University Belfast.
The funding will support successful Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Investigators Programme projects through the SFI-DEL Investigators Programme Partnership.
The SFI-DEL Investigators Programme Partnership supports collaborative projects involving universities from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in undertaking excellent scientific research that has the potential to impact society and the economy. The seven successful projects were selected following international competitive peer review involving 400 international scientists.
The Minister said: “The SFI-DEL Investigators Programme Partnership is of significant benefit to Northern Ireland both economically and socially. I welcome that seven projects involving Queen’s University collaborating as partners with research institutions in the Republic of Ireland have been successful in SFI’s prestigious Investigators Programme.
“My Department will be providing £3.5m to support these ground breaking research projects in areas such as Energy, Sustainable Food Production and Processing, Parallel Computing, Processing Technologies and Advanced Materials and Personalised Medicine.
“These research collaborations will not only address fundamental research issues but will also strengthen cross border research alliances and help Northern Ireland to bring further success under Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.”