The UCD-Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) is supported under the SFI-HRB-Wellcome Trust Research Partnership, with matched funding from UCD. It aims to help UCD’s researchers overcome systemic barriers to career and network development, ultimately unlocking future research potential within the University and beyond. The fund supported high-quality research in the biomedical and clinical sciences. It was also available to directly support research or collaborations within the medical humanities field. This award aimed to enable UCD to strategically advance research in these areas and to leverage further external funding from agencies such as the EU and the Wellcome, amongst others.
The ISSF award was used to support numerous initiatives in the Personalised & Translational Medicine and One Health arenas, enablers for which include:
• Facilitating the early stage research careers of clinicians, practitioners or other individuals in allied health professions within the medical and veterinary medical field
• Support for excellent mid-career academics who have suffered a loss of track record due to external circumstances such as changes in the national funding landscape and/or career break
• The development of internal teams of critical mass and external stakeholder networks through project management supports, patient and public involvement (PPI) and dissemination activities. Particular emphasis was placed on interdisciplinary research and on research that translates into real benefit for human or animal, patients and society.
ISSF Award Schemes
To enable interinstitutional activity, FOUR CROSSCUTTING INITIATIVES were funded. Read more about the schemes and the researchers who were awarded here:
- Clinical Primer Scheme
- Mid-Career Stimulus & Diversification Scheme
- Medical Humanities & Social Sciences Collaborative Scheme
- Networks of Excellence Scheme
ISSF Management
This fund is managed by a Steering Committee which is chaired by the UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Orla Feely. The Steering Committee is comprised of: Directors of relevant Research Institutes and Colleges; Representative Heads of Schools (or senior representatives) under the Personalised & Translational Medicine and One Health remit; Health Research Partner; Research Careers Manager; and Director of Research Finance and Operations. The award is held under Professor William Gallagher, Professor of Cancer Biology, UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science.
(Image L-R: Lorna Donlon, Prof Niamh Nowlan, Dr. Claire Kilty, Dr. Nicola Fletcher, Prof William Gallagher, Dr. Tracey McCauley, Dr. Conor McAloon, Dr. Pamela Kelly, Dr. Ross Neville, Prof Margaret McGee, Dr. Sarah Higginbotham, Prof Emma Teeling, Dr. Rosemarie Gannon, Anna Wedderburn)