Dr David MacManus

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects 30 million women globally each year but finite element brain models (FEBMs) have been developed using male-only data. Through his Starting Grant, Dr David MacManus, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, will develop the first sex specific computer models of the brain that incorporate sex specific neuroanatomy and material damage properties of brain tissue, its blood vessels and cells.

Dr Junli Xu

Dr Junli Xu, Ad Astra Fellow at UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, was awarded a Starting Grant for the PlasTox project. Using advanced techniques such as machine learning and spectral imaging, she is investigating how micro- and nanoplastics affect human digestive health. This research has the potential to yield breakthroughs in numerous key applications such as toxicological screening of drugs, safety assurance and environmental hazard monitoring.

Assoc Prof Joseph Lacey

Assoc Prof Joseph Lacey, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, is the recipient of a Starting Grant for ‘ELECT: Moral Agency in Election Campaigns’. The project investigates what motivates the behaviour of candidates, campaign professionals, journalists and citizens in their varied campaign roles. It explores the moral agency of electoral stakeholders in four countries that have been subject to recent disruptions in the campaign context, namely Germany, Italy, the UK and the US.

Assoc Prof Fiona Freeman

Assoc Prof Fiona Freeman, Ad Astra Fellow at UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, won a Starting Grant for META-CHIP. The project aims to develop a lung metastasis-on-a-chip model specifically for osteosarcoma. This highly aggressive bone cancer primarily affects children and poses a significant threat, particularly due to secondary lung metastasis. Ultimately, the goal is to establish a cost-effective, human systemic model of osteosarcoma metastasis.

Assoc Prof Jennifer Keating

Assoc Prof Jennifer Keating, UCD School of History, received a Starting Grant for 'Land Limits'. The project redefines scholarly debates on the nature of economic growth in northern Eurasia and on state and community violence in the late imperial and early Soviet period. Conducted across five present-day nation states, it underlines the importance of ecological literacy when thinking about past and present, promising to revolutionise our understanding of how environmental change, economic growth and political violence are intertwined in Eurasia.

Assoc Prof Fangzhe Qiu

Assoc Prof Fangzhe Qiu, UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, received a Starting Grant for ’FLEXI: Fluid texts and scholars’ digests: (re)production of law in medieval Ireland’. The project explores how law was transmitted and reproduced by scholars in medieval Europe, by studying the late medieval Irish legal ‘Digests’.  Combining linked data model and network analysis, comparative legal history and natural language processing methods, FLEXI will revolutionise how medieval documents are used to understand intellectual life and textual reproduction.

Dr Ailise Bulfin

Dr Ailise Bulfin, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, was awarded a Starting Grant for the CSAReps project, exploring the culturally significant but neglected body of fictional works which depict child sexual abuse. Examining not only their representational strategies but also their potential role in shaping people’s understandings of CSA, the project aims to shed light on how child sexual abuse is represented across the wide range of cultural works that depict it, and the ways that these works may affect their audiences. 

Dr Alice Mauger

Dr Alice Mauger, UCD School of History, is PI on the Starting Grant project DIASPORA. This research focuses on the Irish in post-war London and New York to provide a nuanced and penetrative investigation of the intersections between alcohol, drug use, mental health, migration and ethnicity. It traces the interplay between expert, State, religious and cultural representations, before contrasting findings with first-hand accounts by Irish migrants. The project will offer a blueprint for future comparative analyses of health, ethnicity and race in historical perspective. 

Assoc Prof Elaine Corbett

Assoc Prof Elaine Corbett, UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, is PI on MYODECISION. The project is developing new decision-making paradigms to study how sensory and motor systems interact in the brain. With a combined brain-behaviour computational modelling approach, this project investigates how people adjust sensorimotor processes to meet changing time and effort demands on their movements, and probes how these processes underpin dynamic changes of mind that rescue erroneous behaviours.

Dr Maebh Harding

Dr Maebh Harding, UCD Sutherland School of Law, received a Consolidator Grant for ‘REDEFPARENT: Redefining Legal Parenthood as a Legal Interdependency between Parent and Child’. The project will interrogate the historical, legal and social dimensions of legal parenthood in Ireland, England and Wales, Sweden and Poland to expose the gaps between the regulatory work that the concept of legal parenthood is currently doing and the social expectations that are placed on the concept.

Assoc Prof Talha Cicek

Dr Talha Cicek, UCD School of History, was awarded a Consildator Grant for his project 'CAPITALEAST: Global Capitalism and Rurality: Agency, Commodification and the Socio-Ecological transformation of the Middle Eastern countryside, 1870- 1945'. The project examines how global capitalism has affected tribes in the Middle East. By studying the commercialisation of agriculture, livestock, and land ownership, the project will reveal connections between rural communities and broader global forces. 

Dr Lai Ma

Dr Lai Ma, UCD School of Information and Communication Studies, is PI on 'SCRiBe: Sustainable and Collaborative Research Information for Bibliodiverse Ecosystems: A Transnational Study'. She received a Consolidator Grant to explore the development of open research infrastructure from a transnational perspective. The project will identify the constraints that hinder the growth of bibliodiversity in Europe, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Prof Cathryn Costello

Prof Cathryn Costello, UCD Sutherland School of Law, was awarded a Consolidator Grant for 'RefLex: Is International Refugee Law Effective?' This global comparative study of the workings and effectiveness of International Refugee Law (IRL) addresses gaps in studies around IRL in practice. It will explore under what conditions IRL is effective in delivering protection for refugees and contribute to the burgeoning field of legal mobilisation studies.

Assoc Prof Aisling Ní Annaidh

PI on 'BreastRecon: A patient specific approach to tissue expansion in breast Reconstruction', Assoc Prof Aisling Ní Annaidh received a Consolidator Grant  to advance patient-specific breast reconstructions by developing a novel acoustoelastic method which can non-invasively determine key biomechanical parameters. 

Assoc Prof Ruth Boeker

Assoc Prof Ruth Boeker, UCD School of Philosophy, is PI of 'BMoral: New Histories of British Moral Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century (c.1690–1800)'. Her Consolidator Grant project will enhance understanding of how male and female philosophers interacted and influenced each other’s writings 1690–1800, and the extent of women’s distinct contributions to British moral philosophy.

Assoc Prof Aidan Regan

Assoc Prof Aidan Regan, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, was awarded a Consolidator Grant to develop a new theoretical framework and causal mechanism to explain how corporate tax avoidance fuels the wealth inequalities that undermine democracy. ‘Democracy Challenged’ will map and reconstruct the global tax-avoiding wealth chains of multinational corporations in the big tech and pharma sectors, and study the role of legal-accountants in creating these strategies and structures.

Prof Niamh Nowlan

Prof Niamh Nowlan, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, was awarded a Consolidator Grant for ‘ReZone’, which aims to improve quality of life for patients with articular cartilage defects. The project examines how the zonal structure of cartilage forms after birth, and in particular how mechanical loading affects the cartilage layers. It aims to shed light on how to (re)activate those processes in adults and regenerate articular cartilage to help patients suffering from joint pain. 

Prof Philip Cardiff

Prof Rosana Pinheiro-Machado

Prof Rosana Pinheiro- Machado, UCD School of Geography, received a Consolidator Grant for 'Flexible Work, Rigid Politics: The Nexus Between Labour Precariousness and Authoritarian Politics in The Global South' (WorkPoliticsBIP). The project examines developmental contradictions and analyses the ideological nexus between precarious platform work and authoritarian political values in Brazil, India, and the Philippines. 

Assoc Prof Katharina Wollenberg-Valero

Assoc Prof Katharina Wollenberg-Valero, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, received a Consolidator Grant for 'Molecular mechanisms and consequences of thermal stress rippling through changing aquatic environments' (MolStressH2O). The project investigates how heat stress caused by climate change is impacting on the aquatic larvae of cold-blooded species. This research will transform our understanding of the mechanisms, and the extent to which organisms will respond to anthropogenic warming.

Assoc Prof Irial Glynn

Assoc Prof Irial Glynn, UCD School of History, received a Consolidator Grant for 'Solidarity, Sovereignty, and Sanctuary on the Seas: A Global History of Boat Refugees since the 1940s' (SOS). The project focuses on the experience of boat refugees and their reception across time and space and examines who hindered and who helped boat refugees on their journeys and why. 

Prof Aisling Swaine

Prof Aisling Swaine, UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, was awarded a Consolidator Grant to lead ‘GENCOERCTRL’, a project examining gender, conflict and coercive control. By developing new methodological approaches to understanding this gendered phenomenon, and speaking with women across Colombia, Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka, the project will uncover the lived experience and nature of coercive control in conflict settings.

Prof Gary Boyd

Prof Boyd's Advanced Grant project 'Architectures of Coal and Modern Europe (ACME)' uses architecture to investigate the role of coal and coal mining within the spatial and social development of modern Europe. The research aims to uncover the intricate ways in which coal mining has influenced areas such as urban planning, sanitation, industrial modernisation and the cultural and social lives of Europe.

Prof Dagmar Schiek

Prof Dagmar Schiek, UCD School of Law, is PI on RIGHTS-TO-UNITE. This Advanced Grant project revives the people’s component of European Integration theory, guided by the question whether EU derived rights are used by individuals in everyday life and how this can promote or disrupt societal integration at local, national and European levels. Focusing on small states within the EU and neighbouring regions the team has a unique lens to examine how legal frameworks impact societal cohesion.

Prof Niall English

Prof Niall English, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, is PI on the NIMBLE project, investigating how electric-field-generated nanobubbles and nanodroplets can be optimised in their characteristics for use in water treatment, agriculture, aquaculture and carbon capture. Nano-bubbles offer endless possibilities for industry, yet harnessing these tiny marvels has been a formidable challenge. NIMBLE aims to revolutionise nano-bubble technology and unlock the potential of these minuscule wonders.

Prof Kenneth Dawson

Prof Kenneth Dawson, UCD School of Chemistry, was awarded an Advanced Grant for FunctionalNanoTher. The project will focus on nanoscale gating mechanisms hypothesised to play a role in cellular defence. It is hypothesised that certain molecular assemblies act like ‘access key codes’, granting intracellular access to nanostructure-embedded biomolecular networks. FunctionalNanoTher will attempt to replicate these ‘gating’ interactions for functional nanoscale therapies in the tumour environment.

Prof Joanna Bruck

Prof Joanna Bruck, UCD School of Archaeology, is PI on the Advanced Grant project 'Animals and Society in Bronze Age Europe' (ANSOC). During the Bronze Age, Europe transformed into a continent of small farming groups. The project will focus on the role of animals in that period in Europe. Bringing together contextual, zooarchaeological, isotope, organic residue and ancient DNA analysis, it will investigate human-animal sociality. By illuminating alternate modalities of power and agency, and different ways of living with non-human others, it will also contribute to current debates around issues such as sustainability in the present.

Prof Robert Gerwarth

Prof Robert Gerwarth, UCD School of History, was awarded an Advanced Grant for 'The Age of Civil Wars in Europe, c. 1914-1949'. This major comparative project challenges exceptionalist approaches to civil war in Europe’s twentieth century. It argues that these wars can only be fully understood as a phenomenon within a pan-European context and not as exclusive, unique incidents. It will provide an answer as to why so many civil wars took place in Europe in the first half of the 20th century and lead to a better understanding of why that century became the most violent in human history.

Prof Eoin Casey

Prof Eoin Casey, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, was awarded an Advanced Grant for the AMADEUS project. Technologies like water recycling and desalination use special filters that can get clogged by unwanted growth of aquatic species, usually treated with chemicals. Natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) offer a non-toxic and flexible way to tackle the problem effectively and safely. AMADEUS aims to create a product that outperforms competing NADES-based counterparts, secure a patent, and bring the product to market quickly. 

Dr Nicola Fletcher

Ad Astra fellow at UCD School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr Nicola Fletcher, is PI on NanoX. This  Synergy Grant collaboration with experts from University of Heidelberg in Germany and Diamond Light Source Limited - the UK's national synchrotron light source science facility - will merge skillsets in infectious disease, physics and structural biology, to develop new techniques that can image tissue micro-biopsies, a crucial step for understanding the mechanisms of disease. This promises new ways to characterise, diagnose, and treat a range of diseases in any species. 

Prof Padraig Dunne

Prof Padraig Dunne, UCD School of Physics, and fellow experts from different fields related to kilonova research (at Copenhagen University, GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and Queens University Belfast) received a Synergy Grant for HEAVYMETAL. The aim of this project is to advance understanding of the physics of extremely dense matter and the origin of heavy elements. A kilonova is a transient astronomical event that occurs in a compact binary system when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge. 

Dr Claire Harnett

The ROTTnROCK Synergy Grant project aims to enhance hazard assessment and prediction. Dr Claire Harnett and fellow experts (at GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Uppsala University and University of Strasbourg) will examine the role of hydrothermal alteration, a process that weakens volcanic rock and makes it prone to sudden failures, in eruptions. Integrating remote sensing, mineralogy, chemistry, rock mechanics, and modelling, they will map where and how this alteration occurs, analysing chemical impact on rock strength, and creating dynamic 4D simulations of volcanic stability.

Prof Emma Teeling

Working with experts from National University of Singapore, Senckenberg Society for Nature Research and University Hospital Cologne, Prof Emma Teeling, UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, leads BATPROTECT. This Synergy Grant project studies bats’ molecular mechanisms investigating their extraordinary longevity and viral tolerance. By generating high-quality bat genomes and developing advanced animal models, it will study this extended healthspan and disease resistance, ultimately informing new therapeutic strategies for humans.

Prof Dimitrios Zevgolis

Prof Zeugolis, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, was awarded a Proof of Concept Grant for 'DECIPHER: Decellularised Extracellular Carpets for the Innovative Production of Human Engineered Replicates'. The project builds on a 2019 Consolidator Award and exploits the disruptive and transformative power of macromolecular crowding in the applied fields of cell culture technologies, medical devices and regenerative medicine, offering new opportunities for scientific, social and economic impact.

Prof Kath Browne

Assoc Prof Ríona Nic Congáil

Assoc Prof Ríona Nic Congáil, UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folklore, received a Starting Grant for 'Youth Engagement in European Language Preservation, 1900-2020' (YEELP). The project aims to preserve historical regional languages giving focus to the role of youth. This addresses a significant gap in research on bilingual, bicultural youth and the question of language preservation in a period since 1900. Three regional or minority languages (Irish, Welsh and Catalan) are under study. 

Prof Frédéric Dias

Prof Frederic Dias, UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics, received an Advanced Grant for his project  ‘HIGHWAVE – Breaking of highly energetic waves' focused on improving understanding of the physics and dynamics of breaking ocean waves to develop more accurate operational wave models. Such models could help to improve wave forecasting models, improve criteria for the design of ships and coastal and offshore infrastructures, help to quantify seabed erosion by powerful breaking waves and quantify air-sea gas transfer.

Assoc Prof Amy Strecker

Assoc Prof Amy Strecker, UCD School of Law, is PI on 'Land-related property rights in international law' (PROPERTY[IN]JUSTICE). The project will study the concept, definition and interpretation of land-related property rights in international law. It will focus on international human rights, environmental and cultural heritage law structures, and specific areas of international economic law that coincide and diverge with spatial justice in land-related projects and policies.

Prof Kathleen James-Chakraborty

Prof Kathleen James-Chakraborty, UCD School of Art History and Cultural Policy, received an Advanced Grant for ‘Expanding Agency: Women, Race and the Global Dissemination of Modern Architecture’. The project explores the role that women and members of ethnic minorities, primarily African-Americans, played in transmitting modern architecture and design internationally, including within Europe, 1920-1970. The goal is to support a more diverse profession that is better prepared to engage with a broad public and address social challenges.

Prof Kenneth Wolfe

Prof Kenneth Wolfe, UCD School of Medicine, examines the evolution of genetic code and the changes it underwent in several species of yeast. Genetic code is universal in most living organisms, but in the yeast species Prof Wolfe is investigating, the code was translated differently. His Advanced Grant project 'Killer plasmids as drivers of genetic code changes during yeast evolution' (CODEKILLER) is testing a new hypothesis that the genetic changes were caused by a deadly toxin.

Prof Gerardine Meaney

Prof Meaney, UCD School of English, Drama and Film, was awarded an Advanced Grant to complete a text analysis of nearly 36,000 books in the British Library Nineteenth Century Corpus. Her study 'European Migrants in the British Imagination: Victorian and Neo-Victorian Culture (VICTEUR)' uses big data to address a key unanswered societal question, how does migration impact on the cultural identity of both migrant and host communities in the historical long-term.

Prof Eoin Carolan

Prof Eoin Carolan, UCD Sutherland School of Law, received a Consolidator Award for 'The Foundations of Institutional Authority' (FIAT). Addressing voter trust issues in different constitutional systems worldwide, the project examines a question that is fundamental to a constitutional system: why do we obey our institutions? It investigates how authority is established and maintained or how it might fail, and how this affects the constitution.