Researchers and professional support staff meet at inaugural Coordinator Mobilisation event

Posted on: 19 January 2024

In 2023 Trinity researchers were awarded eight Horizon Europe Pillar 2 or European Innovation Council projects for which Trinity acts as project coordinator, with a total value of almost €8.4 million. 

These projects have huge potential for impactful research, and contribute to the almost €60 million that Trinity has secured form the Horizon Europe programme since 2021.

The featured projects were: iAMP-Hydro (Prof. Aonghus McNabola, School of Engineering); Go Nature Positive! (Prof. Mary Lee Rhodes & Prof. Siobhán McQuaid, Trinity Business School); 2D-PRINTABLE (Prof. Jonathan Coleman, School of Physics and AMBER Centre); GEMS (Prof. Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic, School of Religion); AirInMotion (Prof. Wolfgang Schmitt & Sebastien Vaesen, School of Chemistry and AMBER Centre); KitNewCare (Prof. Brett Duane, School of Dental Science); 6G-XCEL (Prof. Daniel Kilper, School of Engineering and CONNECT Centre); and ECOTWIN (Prof. Biswajit Basu, School of Engineering).

Principal investigators and team members of the eight showcased projects.

Professional support staff that presented came from the offices of: Financial Services Division (Projects Accounting); Human Resources; Library (Research Informatics); Communications (Media Relations); Trinity Innovation & Enterprise (Knowledge Exchange Office, Research Contracts & CONSULT); and Trinity Research.

Professional support staff at the event.

Research projects

iAMP-Hydro will develop a data-driven hydropower plant management software to optimise the flexibility, productivity and sustainability of the existing European hydropower fleet. Moving the existing, very old, EU infrastructure into the digital domain to help increase the penetration of more variable renewable energies (solar and wind) within the grid. 

Prof. Aonghus McNabola said: “Leading the iAMP-Hydro project places Trinity Engineering at the forefront of digital technology development for the hydropower sector in Europe. We are looking forward to improving the outputs and environmental impact of working hydropower plants in Europe which in turn will help ease the pressure on the grid, and offer more flexibility to deal with the increase of wind and solar energy.”

Go Nature Positive! accelerates action towards a nature-positive economy, with the world’s economic systems currently not adequately recognising the value of nature to planetary and human health. The degradation of land and marine ecosystems undermines the well-being of billions of people, costing about 10% of the annual global gross product. However, the restoration of nature presents enormous economic opportunities.

Prof. Mary Lee Rhodes said: “The ambition of Go Nature Positive is to lead a paradigm shift in economic thinking and practice away from the current spiral of planetary degradation and towards the new opportunities proposed by a Nature-Positive Economy (NPE). Driven by a global network of conceptual thinkers and practitioners, Go Nature Positive resonates strongly with the commitment of Trinity Business School to ‘Transform Business for Good’.”

2D-PRINTABLE pioneers large-scale liquid exfoliation techniques of 2D materials (2DMs). These 2DMs, ranging from conducting to insulating, will be intricately printed into ordered multilayers with an ultimate goal to optimise these printed networks for high-performance printed electronic devices, including transistors, solar cells, and LEDs.

Prof. Jonathan Coleman said: "We are delighted to secure funding for the 2D-PRINTABLE project. It will enable our team to explore the limitless possibilities of 2D materials in the realm of printed electronics.”

GEMS focuses on the video gaming ecosystem and the role it plays in the process of radicalisation. However, as yet there is no compelling evidence base to understand how the process takes place, or the best measures to prevent radicalisation. Games as a Multi-layered Security Threat (GEMS) is an interdisciplinary, mixed-method and cross-sectoral project bringing together academic researchers, AI specialists, policy experts and a range of police authorities from across Europe to address this challenge.

Prof. Maja Halilovic-Pastuovic said: “Safer gamers safer societies!”

AirInMotion provides an efficient and sustainable technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂) from air using state-of-the-art adsorbents and available industrial low-grade waste heat. Industrial integration facilitates CO₂ capture at scale and results in high-quality CO₂ that can be used as a feedstock to produce valuable products in a circular carbon economy.

Prof. Wolfgang Schmitt said: “We are excited to commence this AirInMotion project, which will support the Irish and European journeys towards a more sustainable society, offering an opportunity to address industries whose indirect emissions in the supply chain cannot be removed at source. This prestigious EIC grant is the culmination of more than a decade of research undertaken in our group at Trinity in the field of Direct Air Capture.”

KitNewCare aims to tackle the shortcomings in existing healthcare initiatives concerning the attainment of EU Green Deal environmental objectives. It recognises the significant societal, economic, and health consequences associated with healthcare practices.

Prof. Brett Duane said: "Trinity College Dublin researchers, within the Faculty of Health Sciences, have been at the forefront of a number of sustainability initiatives in healthcare for nearly a decade. The acquisition of this prestigious grant not only underscores our research team's experience but also demonstrates the competencies of our staff in leading EU grants in sustainable healthcare.”

6G-XCEL (6G TransContinental Edge Learning) is a cooperative research project that brings together a large eco-system of industry and academic research teams from the EU and the USA. The project addresses the key challenges associated with using Artificial Intelligence in the development of the systems and networks, which will become a core part of 6G.

Prof. Dan Kilper said: “6G-XCEL puts Ireland at the centre of global research on Artificial Intelligence in the 6th Generation (6G) technology for telecommunication networks. 6G will be a major driver in the next decade for how we will live, work, and play in the digital world. This win is a result of the investment that SFI has made In the CONNECT Centre for Future Networks and Communications and demonstrates the international recognition for the excellent, ground-breaking research of the centre.” 

ECOTWIN addresses the gap in the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO) by developing four different types of innovative socio-ecological models and analysis tools. These models and tools will be applied to some key use cases for the marine coastal ecosystems located at some of the strategic regions (Southern North Sea, Celtic Sea, Thracian Sea and Waterford Estuary) supporting the Ocean Mission’s Blue Parks and Lighthouses.

Prof. Biswajit Basu said: "This research funding will open a new avenue of research in merging quantitative and qualitative systems by developing novel mathematical graph theoretic approaches for modelling socio-ecological systems. We are excited for having the opportunity of taking a lead role in contributing towards the vision for the European Digital Twin Ocean."

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