👩‍🔬📊 Highly Cited: UCD researchers named amongst 2024’s most influential Three researchers at University College Dublin are among the top 1% of the world's most cited academics according to the latest Highly Cited Researchers report, compiled by Clarivate Analytics. The 2024 listings have named Professors Da-Wen Sun and Paula Bourke, both from the UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, as well as Eliana B. Souto, SALI Professor of Pharmaceutical Engineering at the UCD School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering as among the 6,636 researchers recognised this year as having demonstrated significant influence in their chosen fields. To be named as a ‘Highly Cited Researcher’ it must be demonstrated that an individual’s work has disproportionately extended the frontiers of knowledge and contributed to making the world healthier, more sustainable and drive societal impact. Each researcher selected for the 2024 listings has authored multiple Highly Cited Papers which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field, and publication year in the Web of Science, over the past decade.

🇪🇺🧪 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞: 𝐔𝐂𝐃 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐑𝐂 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 To help support their cutting-edge research projects, European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants have been awarded to Dr Junli Xu, Ad Astra Fellow at UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering and UCD Conway Fellow, and Dr David MacManus, UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. The pair were among seven Irish scholars who were among the 494 early career scholars to receive funding under the Horizon Europe programme. Dr Junli Xu was awarded €1.5 million for her project, Plastox – which will use machine learning and spectral imaging to investigate the impact of micro and nano plastics (MNPS) on human digestive health. For his project, Brainsex, Dr David MacManus received €1.5 million to help bridge the sex gap that exists when it comes to modelling traumatic brain injuries. Congratulating Dr Xu and Dr MacManus on receiving coveted ERC grants, UCD Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown said, “Their groundbreaking projects will contribute significantly to their respective fields”. “UCD is committed to supporting academic career development and ambitious projects at every career stage and we are excited to follow the progress of these promising researchers and their fascinating projects.” European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, added: “The European Commission is proud to support the curiosity and passion of our early-career talent under our Horizon Europe programme. “The new ERC Starting Grants winners aim to deepen our understanding of the world. Their creativity is vital to finding solutions to some of the most pressing societal challenges. In this call, I am happy to see one of the highest shares of female grantees to date, a trend that I hope will continue.” President of the European Research Council, Professor Maria Leptin, continued: “Empowering researchers early on in their careers is at the heart of the mission of the ERC.”

🏆🌎 Emerging Greentech start-up SusBioME wins UCD’s 2024 VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme 💡 The company is attempting to overcome the major limits of using the anaerobic digestion process to increase renewable gas yields from biomass. Renewable gas from anaerobic digestion is key for energy security and sustainability, and the process sees organic feedstocks, including wastes, digested and turned into biogas or biomethane, which can be used exactly like natural gas. A major bottleneck limiting such renewable gas production is the low digestibility of feedstock used in anaerobic digestion which leads to unrealised gas yields and low operational efficiency. To address this problem SusBioME, a start-up emerging from the UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, is developing modular, plug-in disruptive electro-processing technologies to make feedstocks more biodigestible. By the direct applications of electric fields, the SusBioME technology physically disrupts feedstocks, which rapidly and very efficiently makes them more biodigestible leading to gas yield improvements of up to 30%. The winning members of the SusBioME team are Dr Ajay Menon, who completed the VentureLaunch Accelerator Programme, Professor James Lyng, Norman Maloney and Bernie Fitzpatrick. “Everyone knows why renewable energy is important, but few know how much of it is sourced from biomass,” said Dr Ajay Menon, UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science. “Last year, 59% of the EU’s renewable energy came from biomass-based bioenergy, more than wind, solar and hydro combined. Renewable gas, made using anaerobic digestion, is the most promising and important kind of bioenergy and is a huge and growing industry.” He added: “Currently we are halfway through our Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund project, and we already have three trial partners secured for pilot demonstrations. In 2025 we intend to spin out of UCD, raise some €500k in pre-seed funding and commercially launch SusBioME."