UCD co-leads on new €31.6m ARC Hub for Therapeutics
12 February 2025
Dr Ena Walsh, Case Manager, Knowledge Transfer, NovaUCD; Prof. Kate Robson Brown, VP for Research, Innovation & Impact, UCD, Prof. William Gallagher, UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science and UCD Conway Institute; Prof. Leonie Young, Department of Surgery, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences; James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science; Dr Michelle Olmstead, Chief Innovation and Enterprise Officer, Trinity College Dublin; Prof. Vincent Kelly, School of Biochemistry & Immunology, Trinity College Dublin; Michael Horgan, Chair, Research Ireland; Helen Kearns, Head of Media, Communication and Outreach at European Commission Dublin Representation; Dr Emma O’Neill, Life Sciences Case Manager, Trinity Innovation & Enterprise, Trinity College Dublin; Dr Derek John, Technology Transfer Case Manager at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences; and David Kelly, Director of Southern Regional Assembly Credit: Jason Clarke Photography
A new Accelerating Research to Commercialisation (ARC) Hub that UCD is co-leading will fast-track the commercial potential of scientific research across Ireland.
Announced by James Lawless TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Research Ireland ARC Hub for Therapeutics, headquartered at Trinity College Dublin, has been awarded €31.6 million in funding and is one of two new ARC Hubs designed to bring research to commercialisation outcomes.
University College Dublin (UCD) is co-leading the ARC Hub for Therapeutics as one of three research partners, along with Trinity College Dublin and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.
The second Hub announced is the Research Ireland ARC Hub for ICT, and the two Hubs have been awarded a combined budget of €63.84 million with funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Government of Ireland.
Objectives of the ARC programme include driving regional development by accelerating novel, cutting-edge research, towards commercial impact readiness, and the development of a cohort of entrepreneurial scientists and engineers with the skills to realise commercial opportunities from research activities.
The focus of the ARC Hub for Therapeutics is accelerating translational research in the fields of small molecule therapies, biological therapies, biomaterials, biomarkers with therapeutic potential and in advanced therapy medicinal products.
(opens in a new window)Professor William Gallagher, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and UCD Conway Institute, is Deputy Academic Director and UCD lead of the ARC Hub for Therapeutics, which is led by Professor Vincent Kelly, Trinity College Dublin and which involves investigators from research bodies throughout Ireland, including UCD, Trinity and RCSI.
In addition to Professor Gallagher, three other UCD researchers, (opens in a new window)Professor Catherine Godson, UCD School of Medicine, (opens in a new window)Professor Keith Murphy, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science and (opens in a new window)Professor Siobhán McClean, UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science are co-PIs in the ARC Hub for Therapeutics. The four co-PIs are also Fellows of the UCD Conway Institute.
Minister (opens in a new window)@lawlessj has announced funding of nearly €64 million to support the fast-tracking of the commercial potential of scientific research across Ireland.
— Department of Further and Higher Education (@DeptofFHed) (opens in a new window)February 12, 2025
Read more: (opens in a new window)https://t.co/YbtLfYx35e(opens in a new window)@Researchirel (opens in a new window)@tcddublin (opens in a new window)@WeAreTUDublin (opens in a new window)@EUinmyRegion (opens in a new window)pic.twitter.com/SDk0qFdG2I
“The Research Ireland ARC Hubs for Therapeutics and ICT represent a new model for regional innovation and entrepreneurial training that will catalyse a step-change in the translation of cutting-edge, publicly-funded research towards impact at a regional level. The ARC Hubs will enhance and accelerate the commercialisation of research to create new products, processes and services,” said Minister James Lawless TD.
Professor Kate Robson Brown, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact added: “I am delighted that UCD is one of the three researcher partners driving forward the Research Ireland ARC Hub for Therapeutics, a research and innovation programme of national importance and reach. The ARC Hub for Therapeutics will have a transformational impact on the life sciences ecosystem in Ireland and beyond and I wish all involved every success in the coming years.”
Professor Gallagher, UCD lead of the ARC Hub for Therapeutics said: “The ARC Hub for Therapeutics provides a critical bridge between original discoveries in the life sciences and downstream novel therapeutic applications. It allows targeted and timely investments to be made to fast-track therapeutic innovations towards commercialisation and clinical utility, across a wide variety of disease areas, working with great colleagues at UCD, Trinity College Dublin and RCSI.”
Professor Kelly, lead of the ARC Hub for Therapeutics said: “Along with our consortium partners, UCD and RCSI, we look forward to fostering a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and to supporting researchers across Ireland in taking highly promising therapeutics research and delivering transformative new products, processes and services to market.
There is a tremendous talent pool among researchers in Ireland working within therapeutics-related fields and we hope the new Hub will help more and more of them to deliver myriad innovations that will leave an indelible impact across the globe, providing treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and exploiting a whole range of advanced treatments options including vaccines, cellular therapies and gene-therapies in addition to the traditional small molecule drug approaches.”
Six UCD researchers are among the first cohort of researchers who will be funded as part of the initial tranche of ARC Hub for Therapeutics funding.
The UCD investigators are Professor Godson, Professor McClean, and (opens in a new window)Dr Rory Johnson, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science; (opens in a new window)Professor Walter Kolch and (opens in a new window)Professor Ulla Knaus, UCD School of Medicine, all Fellows of the UCD Conway Institute, and (opens in a new window)Dr Oleksii Rukhlenko, UCD School of Medicine.
Professor Gallagher added: “I would like to acknowledge the very substantial support that has been received from the Knowledge Transfer team at NovaUCD, and Dr Ena Walsh in particular, in securing the ARC Hub for Therapeutics funding.”
The ARC Hubs are co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the Southern, Eastern and Midland Regional Programme 2021-2027, one of two ERDF programmes in Ireland. The ERDF aims to promote economic, social and territorial cohesion across all European regions.
Celine Fitzgerald, Interim CEO, Research Ireland said: “The Research Ireland ARC Hub Programme is a gamechanger in terms of driving regional development through commercialisation of research. The two ARC Hubs unveiled today, Therapeutics and ICT respectively, will create regional entrepreneurial ecosystems in two critically important sectors for the Irish economy.
"Accelerating the overall journey to impact will be achieved by enabling researchers with novel ideas to become future entrepreneurs, with the Hubs providing an integrated approach to research funding, entrepreneurial training and access to networks and supports.”
Maciej Berestecki, European Commission Spokesperson, said: “The European Commission welcomes this strategic investment to be co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. The ARC Hubs offer an integrated approach which will not only accelerate the commercialisation of research but also improve regional competitiveness. By embedding entrepreneurial approaches into the research and innovation ecosystem, groundbreaking ideas can be developed and lead to tangible economic and societal benefits for all regions across Ireland.”
The ARC Hub for ICT, led by Professor Sarah Jane Delany, TU Dublin, is focused on accelerating translational research in ICT and AI to commercialisation and aims to drive digital transformation across healthcare, education, infrastructure, sustainability, and data management.
By: Staff Writers (with materials from Micéal Whelan, UCD Research and Innovation)
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
