Research expertise at UCD's Conway Institute is showcased today at a Festival of Research, reports Dick Ahlstrom.
"If you've got it, flaunt it" is a typical showbiz response, but it isn't a phrase that usually springs to mind in relation to scientists. University College Dublin, however, has given its researchers a chance to shine at a Festival of Research on campus today.
The event involves researchers from the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, a major centre in its own right but only one element in the world of research work at UCD. The Conway is holding the meeting to brief UCD's researchers on what others are doing.
It is an opportunity for the researchers to pick up on hot topics under study by the three components of the Conway Institute, to view the latest work by Conway investigators, and to listen to lectures from an international panel of guest speakers, explains the Conway's director, Dr Andy Robertson.
"The festival is part of our yearly series of meetings," he says. "It is a showcase where we get the best research and display the leading hot topics."
It is also a way of briefing those who contribute funds to the Conway, "an opportunity for all the donors to find out what this institution is attempting to do", says Robertson.
The Conway takes a straightforward approach to scientific research. "The best way to do high-quality science is to bring together people with a common cause," says Robertson.
This the Conway does by pooling expertise. Currently, its work involves 82 investigators, 206 PhD students and 97 post-doctoral researchers, working either on campus or in related centres in hospitals and other institutions. All are linked by the Conway Institute.
The Conway itself has three branches, the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre, the Centre for Integrative Biology, and the Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology. The overall work programme concentrates on four key areas: cancer research; vascular biology; neuroscience; and infection, immunity and inflammation.
There will be talks by researchers from each of the three centres, says Robertson. There are also three invited speakers, one each from Ireland, Britain and the US.
The Conway was established in April 2000 with funding from the State's Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions, a scheme administered by the Higher Education Authority.
A home for the institute is being built on the Belfield campus. It should be ready by July 2003, says Robertson, and it will accommodate 300 staff. The Conway will also announce shortly the creation of four new research chairs, again using HEA funding with additional support from the Government.
The Conway helps the State in a number of ways, according to Robertson. Its mission is to develop an integrated medical and biochemical research programme that covers everything from "molecules to medicine" and from "the bench to the bedside". This approach will bring research findings as quickly as possible into clinical practice.
"The benefit to Ireland in the short term is that the Irish science community will gain really fantastic infrastructure," he says. "It gives Irish scientists an opportunity to be internationally competitive."
This type of development helps the State retain the "brightest and best of our students", he adds, by opening up career opportunities in advanced research. It serves as a magnet for researchers who have left Ireland, giving them a reason to continue their careers at home. It also makes the State attractive to leading foreign researchers.
It fits in with the Government's stated policy to develop the Republic as a creator of marketable knowledge. "It helps embed in Ireland a research-based economy," says Robertson.
The festival also includes a competition for researchers. Papers from across the Conway have been studied and a shortlist of the 10 best has been put together. These will go forward for judging today, with a winner to be announced before the close of the festival.
Research topics include the neurobiology of schizophrenia and addiction; prostate cancer; diabetes; rheumatoid arthritis; blood vessel growth, and breast cancer.