Friday 22nd January 2016

It is great news that University College Cork is to benefit from €6.2 million in grants for research equipment and facilities.

I would like to congratulate the academic staff and students in UCC, as this award of research funding is further evidence of the great work being done at the University.

The funding is part of a €28 million investment that has been announced by the Department of Jobs through Science Foundation Ireland.

One of the projects being funded at UCC is the INFANT Centre’s Early Life lab. The project has been granted €1.5 million to study how the brain grows, develops and repairs itself in young children following early brain injury. €350,000 has also been awarded for a Biobank, which is being developed by the same centre.

Other projects at UCC are also to receive funding – over €1.6 million is going to the Irish Atmospheric Simulation Chamber (IASC) Facility, over €2.2 million to the MARINET Centre, and over €1 million to the Process Flow Spectroscopy Facility (ProSpect) Centre.

Fine Gael has a long term plan to keep the recovery going. We are seeing economic progress, with over 135,000 more people at work. Our plan will deliver more new jobs and affordable, sustainable improvements in services. The plan will allow us to continue targeted investment like this.