The Higher Education Authority last month announced the destination of another £62 million in funding for research, the second major round of funding under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions.
The programme, administered by the Higher Education Authority, has distributed funding worth £220 million since its introduction in 1999. It also represents a remarkable turnaround in the level of State support for advanced research in the State's universities and institutes of technology.
The programme is designed to support attempts by third-level institutions to improve the depth and breadth of established research expertise. Applicant bodies are expected to submit a programme that supports a strategic approach to research in areas of particular importance to them.
The funding initiative also rewards institutions that take a collaborative view and join with other Irish institutions, according to the chairman of the HEA, Dr Don Thornhill.
The current funding round, Cycle 2, "reflects a developing awareness of the need to generate critical mass through joint action and investment", Dr Thornhill said. It also dispels the view that institutions and individuals are incapable of co-operation here, he added.
The selection process for the eight successful programmes chosen for funding included international peer review, Dr Thornhill said. One panel member said many of the research themes touched on the "great questions of our time", but was surprised to see the absence of two "fundamental themes" for research - sex and religion.
Over the coming weeks Science Today will take a closer look at a number of the projects that won funding and at how the money is to be spent.
We start with the largest single award, that for the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre, a £21 million research partnership which brings together UCD and TCD.
It will combine the research efforts of UCD's Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research and Trinity's Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Two such research powerhouses should help make the DMMC a world-class centre of excellence in molecular medicine and the genetic factors influencing the development and treatment of human disease.