NeuroInsight Grant Going to Award 33 Fellowships to ALS, Other Researchers

Margarida Maia, PhD avatar

by Margarida Maia, PhD |

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Fellowship program opens

Fellowship program

A research training program in Ireland, called NeuroInsight Fellowship, will use a multi-million grant award to bring established scientists from around the world to that country to advance their skills in neuroscience and data analytics.

Two-year fellowships given through this program will allow 33 scientists to further their understanding of advanced data and its use in research into neurologic diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

NeuroInsight Fellowship, established in Ireland through the FutureNeuro SFI Research Centre in partnership with Insight (the SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics), was recently awarded a €4.7 million (about $5.7 million) grant by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) co-fund scheme. MSCA is part of the European Union’s  Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

“As a society, and particularly in our healthcare systems, we are generating more and more data, insights from which can help us better understand and treat neurological disease,” Gianpiero Cavalleri, PhD, a NeuroInsight program lead and a professor of human genetics at the RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, said in a press release.

“This programme is about training and equipping the next generation of researchers to safely and effectively engage with these datasets in a manner that positively impacts on the lives of people with neurological conditions,” Cavalleri said.

The two SFI centers will offer a two-year integrated and applied training program to the scientists it names as research fellows, building both on their institutes’ expertise in neuroscience and data analytics, as well as patient input.

Research fellows in this program will also work at hospital and pharmaceutical sites “to ensure their findings are transferable to devices, diagnostics or treatments that ultimately improve the lives of people impacted by neurological disease,” a separate release by RSCI, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, stated.

A call for fellowship applications is expected to open in November, and a website detailing requirements is planned for September. Information on these plans and the NeuroInsight Fellowship program is available here.

FutureNeuro and Insight report  having given support to more than 500 researchers working on a new generation of neuroscience and data analytics technologies.

“As a university with a singular focus on health sciences, we are proud that our FutureNeuro centre will lead and co-fund the NeuroInsight Fellowship programme in partnership with Insight,” said Fergal O’Brien, PhD, director of research and innovation at RCSI.  “I look forward to seeing the outcomes of these important research projects that will address some of the healthcare challenges arising from neurological conditions across the globe.”