Broad Horizons

Becoming the national leader in EU funded research

  • 10 February 2025

 

The research community at UCD has generated unprecedented success in the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework, netting total funding of over €111 million and seeing the university ranked number one in Ireland for EU funded research and number 18 among all higher education institutions across the EU.

The excellence of UCD academics’ research across the career spectrum is reflected in their outstanding performance in European Research Council (ERC) programmes, with almost half the ERC grant holders in Ireland at the university, representing total funding capture of €69.56 million.

Pictured: UCD President Prof Orla Feely and VP for Research, Innovation and Impact Prof Kate Robson Brown with five recent ERC awardees and the ERC support team from UCD Research. 

The success arises from key strategic actions pursued by UCD’s dedicated Research unit, following a slower performance under the previous framework, Horizon 2020. Director of Research at UCD, Dipti Pandya said: “Firstly, we built dedicated EU research teams to provide training and support for funding proposals across each pillar of Horizon Europe. Secondly, we implemented a communications plan to share information and resources for Horizon Europe, as well as success stories and ‘research journeys’ to debunk perceptions that EU funding is too hard to go for if you haven’t tried before or are at an early stage of career, or have had a career break for family and so on.

“This step was very important because increasing participation is the key to success. If you have a good idea aligned to a cluster or call, and can build a network, you have a very good chance whatever stage you’re at in your career. Lastly, we focused specifically on talent development and specialist support for ERC, at every career stage, and this particular step has led to some of the most exciting frontier research at UCD, including our younger faculty and Ad Astra Fellows.”

The ERC provides substantial grants to support investigator-driven frontier research. UCD researchers have been successful in obtaining ERC grants for projects in the arts, social sciences and humanities, and the forefront of scientific and technological discovery. Visit our ERC Showcase to explore the 34 UCD academics and their projects.

UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown commented: "UCD academics awarded these prized ERC grants have been recognised as pioneers in their fields through these awards. Their success in these highly competitive calls reflects the breadth of expertise across disciplines at UCD and the quality of world-class research being carried out here. Their achievement exemplifies the excellence of our researchers who are building strong international collaborations to drive innovation and address global challenges." 

Beyond the ERC, explore some of UCD’s largescale Horizon Europe projects under Pillar 2, coordinated by leading researchers from diverse disciplines.

 

EU funding for innovation at UCD

UCD actively engages with various EU funding programmes to foster innovation across multiple disciplines. These initiatives support ground-breaking research, technological advancements, and the commercialisation of high-impact projects.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) is one source of support for innovation at UCD. It offers funding through several key programmes:

  • ‘Pathfinder’ for advanced research to develop the scientific basis to underpin breakthrough technologies;
  • ‘Transition’ to validate technologies and develop business plans for specific applications;
  • ‘Accelerator’ to support companies (SMEs, start-ups, spin-offs and in exceptional cases small mid-caps) to bring their innovations to market and scale them up;
  • ‘Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Scale Up’ to support promising companies (SMEs, start-ups, spin-offs and in exceptional cases small mid-caps) in critical areas to help them secure larger funding rounds for scaling their businesses.

For instance, UCD spin-out Equal1 Laboratories secured €10 million in blended funding from the EIC Accelerator to advance their silicon quantum computing technology.

SiriusXT, another UCD spin-out, was awarded over €4.5 million in blended (grant and equity) funding from the EIC Accelerator Pilot programme which was part of Horizon 2020.

Some recent EIC Pathfinder awards at UCD include: