Coordinated cybersecurity strategy and a new Parkinson’s disease research hub are among the funded projects.
The Irish Government has announced €16m in funding for four cross-border research collaborations between higher education institutions across the island of Ireland. The projects include a new research hub for Parkinson’s disease, coordinated cybersecurity solutions, and an art and design initiative to boost community involvement in transformative research.
The allocated funding is delivered through the second call of the North-South Research Programme (NSRP) and funded through the Government’s Shared Island strategy alongside resourcing from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. This second round of funding is administered by the Higher Education Authority.
Each of the four selected projects will receive up to €4m over a four-year period. These include ‘Co-Create’, which will establish a network of researchers using art and design to create transformative approaches to public services, climate action, health and inclusive heritages. This is led by National College of Art and Design and Ulster University.
The ‘CyberUnite’ project aims to achieve rapid all-island coordinated development of new cybersecurity solutions for resilient and adaptive social and economic infrastructure. This is led by University of Limerick and Queen’s University Belfast.
While ‘Lifelangs’ aims to foster a shared understanding of linguistic diversity and social cohesion to develop tools for teaching. This is led by Trinity College Dublin and Queen’s University Belfast.
And ‘PD-Life’ will create an all-island, multi-institutional research hub for Parkinson’s disease. The planned hub will focus on areas such as stigma, mental health and physical activity to improve the quality of life for people living with PD through research and innovation. This is led by University College Cork and Queen’s University Belfast.
This second call supports medium-scale projects that deepen inter-institutional connections and lead to more sustainable collaborative institutional relationships on the island in the areas of higher education and research.
The four successful projects were chosen from 131 applications from 17 higher education institutions.
The NSRP was initially resourced with €40m when it launched in 2021. The programme received an additional €10m from the Shared Island Fund in 2022 to contribute to the second call, which was launched in October 2024.
“Deepening cooperation between higher education institutions and researchers on a cross-border basis to conduct research of economic and social benefit to the whole island is a key priority of the Government’s Shared Island Initiative,” said Taoiseach Micheál Martin, TD.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, TD, said, “Since my appointment, I have actively engaged in strengthening north-south collaborations between higher education and research institutions.
“These projects, spanning cybersecurity, language and identity, Parkinson’s Disease research and inclusive design, demonstrate the potential of what shared research ambition can achieve. They will foster innovation, inform policy and enhance quality of life across communities. Crucially, they set the stage for deeper collaboration in the years ahead.”
Higher Education Authority CEO Dr Alan Wall said that the NSRP is a “unique funding mechanism” supporting research collaboration on an all-island basis.
The first call under NSRP was announced in 2022 with a €37.3m fund supporting 62 collaborative projects on topics including antibiotic resistant bacteria and cancer research.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.