An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, TD together with the Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Frances Fitzgerald, TD, and the Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan, TD, today announced four new world-class Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres, including the RCSI-led FutureNeuro centre.
The new SFI Research Centres represent an investment of €74 million from the Government over the next six years, with a further investment of €40m from industry. The investment will support cutting-edge basic and applied research with strong industry engagement, driving economic benefits and positive societal impact.
FutureNeuro is focused on addressing the socio-economic burden caused by chronic and rare neurological diseases. In an internationally unique manner, FutureNeuro links innovative neurotherapeutics development with genomic and biomarker-based patient stratification, a national eHealth infrastructure and a nationwide clinical network. Building initially on world-leading pre-clinical and clinical research into epilepsy and motor neurone disease, the FutureNeuro Centre is a scalable platform that will expand quickly to focus on other chronic and rare neurological diseases. FutureNeuro is relevant to the 700,000 people living with a neurological condition in Ireland, with an associated health and societal cost greater than €3 billion each year. It will strengthen Ireland's ability to attract foreign direct investment from companies active in the multi-trillion euro global market for diagnostics, treatments and medtech for neurological diseases, and facilitate indigenous companies seeking to access this market.
Speaking at the launch of the four new SFI Research Centres, An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, TD, said: "Investing in leading-edge scientific and technological research is good for our economy and helps us to discover new innovations which can improve our quality of life. Our SFI Research Centres represent a virtuous triangle between government, industry and higher education, and show just what can be achieved when there is a shared vision about reaching your ambitions. These four new SFI Research Centres will be centres of activity where Irish and international researchers are trained and collaboration with private companies is facilitated to deliver new ideas and innovation. This in turn helps to create high-value jobs and drives economic growth and regional development. The SFI Research Centres show the value of investing in today, so we can imagine the world of the future."