Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD, has announced 62 grants valued at €42 million to support research across 13 higher education institutions through Science Foundation Ireland’s Frontiers for the Future Programme. Among the recipients is Lero’s Professor Gabriel-Miro Muntean, from the School of Electronic Engineering at Dublin City University.

Commenting on the programme, Minister Harris said: “These awards, supported under the SFI Frontiers for the Future programme, will enable research ideas to contribute new knowledge, solving problems faced by our society, while also providing a continuum of support from early career to established researchers, thus growing and retaining top talent in Ireland.

“The SFI Frontiers for the Future programme takes important steps to address gender imbalance and to provide support and opportunity for emerging investigators who are returning to their research after a period of leave.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, said: “I am delighted that we are funding 62 new research grants through the SFI Frontiers for the Future programme. A key action of SFI’s strategy is to deliver 140 investigator grants every year to support excellent research and to attract top talent. The Frontiers for the Future programme is the primary mechanism to achieve this goal. It is vital that we invest in excellent and innovative research in Ireland. I would like to thank the Children’s Health Foundation and Geological Survey Ireland for collaborating on this programme with SFI, allowing us to fund projects which will have a significant impact in key areas.”

This programme was funded in collaboration with the Children’s Health Foundation (CHF) and Geological Survey Ireland (GSI).

Professor Muntean’s Framework for Performance-aware Differentiated Innovative Services in 5G and Beyond Networks (FRADIS) is identified among 49 high-risk, high-reward projects and will receive more than €600,000 in funding from SFI.

Overall, the funding will support 197 research roles, including 68 postdoctoral positions, 87 PhD students and 37 Research Assistants and other positions.