University of Galway has been awarded funding for 25 collaborative projects as part of the ENLIGHT European university alliance.

Academics and researchers leading the partnerships will focus on a range of areas including migration; cancer; hydrogen energy; multilingualism; accessible AI transformation; neurotherapies; and pain.

A total of €1.64m was awarded across the alliance to enable University of Galway staff to work with counterparts in 10 European countries across the ENLIGHT alliance, along with external stakeholders.

Key research pillars

The collaboration projects are all in areas linked to the university’s key research pillars of innovation for health; creativity, culture and society; transformative data and AI; and sustainable and resilient environments.

Alexander Metcalfe, vice-president for international, University of Galway, said: “ENLIGHT is a hugely positive initiative for University of Galway that has flourished in the last few years. This engagement with our ENLIGHT partners will support our strategic ambitions in education and research by providing diverse international opportunities to our university community and enabling our academics to further strengthen their international networks.

“The focus of this second stage of ENLIGHT funding is on embedding the European University Alliance in each partner institution and in each country. Our 25 funded projects demonstrate that we are doing just that here in the west of Ireland and we look forward to seeing the outputs of these initiatives over the coming years.”

L-R: Aishling Hanrahan, ENLIGHT engagement manager; Kathryn Kozarits, ENLIGHT executive; Alex Metcalfe, vice president international; Louise Hannon, head of research, post award; and Pamela Devins, head of ENLIGHT, University of Galway.

ENLIGHT is an alliance of ten European universities in ten European countries, with the aim of transforming higher education and empowering learners as globally engaged citizens. ENLIGHT is funded under the European University Initiative, part of the European Commission’s flagship strategy for higher education. It is also supported by the Higher Education Authority.

In 2023, the European commission announced ENLIGHT would be supported with a four-year, €14.4m investment, with a significant portion of that funding earmarked for academic collaboration, emphasising the alliance’s commitment to supporting scholars.

The collaborative projects are supported through the European Thematic Network initiative, which enables a community of multidisciplinary academic teams from at least three universities in the alliance to join forces around a specific topic with societal relevance and impact. 

About the 25 ENLIGHT funded projects

• B-MOVE - Beyond Migration: Organisms, Matter, Voices, Ecologies – Bianca Rita Cataldi and Andrea Ciribuco, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• LEMuR - Linguistic Equity in Multilingual Regions – Verena Platzgummer and Andrea Ciribuco, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• PainNet – Enlight Pain Education and Research Network - Michelle Roche, Physiology, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
• ETHYC - Education and Training for HYdrogen eCosystems - Pau Farras, College of Science and Engineering.
• IDenti-T – Interdisciplinary Dialogue on evolving identities in times of democratic Transformations – Ekaterina Yahyaoui and team, College of Business, Public Policy and Law and the Irish Centre for Human Rights.
• InfraCARE - Urban Infrastructures for Climate Action and Repair – Frances Fahy, Kathy Reilly and team, College of Science and Engineering.
• CROSS-ACCESS – Inclusive Systems Transformation for Migrants with Disabilities -Una Murray, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• NAI²TURE - Network for Accessible and Interdisciplinary AI Transformation at Universities through Research and Exchange - Olivia Mc Dermott, College of Science and Engineering and Rónán Kennedy, Abigail Rekas and Umair ul Hassan, College of Business, Public Policy and Law.
• NETCARE - NeTwork for CAncer Research and Education - Eva Szegezdi and team, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
• NEUROSOFT - Soft Materials for Brain Health and Neurotherapies - Abhay Pandit, Manus Biggs and team, College of Science and Engineering and College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
• IMPULSE - Interdisciplinary Network on the Impact of Sex & Gender in Health - Katarzyna Whysall and team, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
• AMITY - Accelerating MIcrobial Technologies for a sustainable circular economy through a biennial challenge-based program in environmental (bio)technology - Alma Siggins, College of Science and Engineering.

Incubator Grants

• HELIOS - Health Psychology Education and Learning in an International Open Society – Molly Byrne, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• HHiP - Health Humanities in Practice – Michal Molcho, School of Education. 
• DEMPOWER - Joint Masters in Global Media, Democracy and Digital Power – Tom Felle, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• EOFS - Earth Observatory Field School - Gordon Bromley and Aaron Potito, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies.
• QEF - Joint Masters in quantitative economics and finance (led by University of Ghent with University of Galway lead, Féidhlim McGowan.
• MCASID - Management control practices as motivators of sustainable performance in diverse teams’ - Breda Sweeney, partnering with Ghent and Groningen.
• GENAI-SWE - Generative AI for Software Engineering - Michael Madden, College of Science and Engineering.
• DIS/CONNECT: Gender, Power, and Disinformation Across Borders – Irish Centre for Human Rights and College of Business, Public Policy and Law. 
• HATCH - Humor As a Communication Tool in Healthcare, Duygu Sezgin, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
• FRONTLINE - Precision Medicine; Integrating Precision Medicine into Tomorrow’s Medical Curriculum - Derek Morris, College of Science and Engineering. 
• FUTUREFOUNDERS - Empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs across ENLIGHT six flagship areas - Natalie Walsh IdeasLab. 
• E2: ENLIGHT Empathy Incubator - Neil Ferguson, IdeasLab. 
• TRIALLEARN - Developing a training module for clinical researchers to use and generate real world evidence - Declan Devane, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.