Research to reduce the cost of offshore wind platform moorings and to reduce the environmental impact of composites for renewable energy devices feature among new Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) fellowships.
A total of 15 awards have been announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Patrick O’Donovan as part of a €1.4 million investment.
The SFI Industry Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) fellowship programme supports the temporary placement of academic researchers in 12 companies, to conduct research across a variety of areas.
Other projects include seaweed extract for use in cosmetics/health products, and reducing cement’s carbon footprint.
The new, sustainable alternatives to reduce environmental impact of composites for renewable energy devices will be conducted in collaboration with Connemara company ÉireComposites.
The research project at ÉireComposites will focus on sustainable materials that can be used to produce parts for renewable energy devices such as wind turbine blades (offshore and wind farm turbines) and for marine applications like boats.
A seaweed compound to improve the cosmetics and health product industry will be researched in collaboration with Bantry Marine Research Station, West Cork.
A project to develop and commercialise a load reduction device to reduce the cost of the moorings for offshore wind platforms will be conducted in collaboration with Dublin Offshore Technology.
Fellowships can have a duration of between one and 12 months if full-time, and between two and 24 months if part-time.
Fellows are from nine higher education institutes, including Trinity College Dublin, University of Galway, University of Limerick, University College Dublin, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Science, Technological University of the Shannon, University College Cork, Atlantic Technological University, and Dublin City University.
The collaborating industry partners include: Analog Devices Inc (ADI), GlasPort Bio Ltd., Subsea Micropiles Ltd., EireComposites, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., Dublin Offshore Technology, Ecocem, Eblana Photonics, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, NEG8 Carbon, and Bantry Marine Research Station.
Applications for the 2024 SFI Industry RD&I Fellowship call are now open, with a deadline for submissions of June 26th, 2024. More here
