University of Galway researcher Dr Erin McCarthy has been awarded a €1.86million grant from the European Research Council (ERC) for a unique project to analyse poetry. Dr McCarthy, a Senior Research Fellow with the University’s Moore Institute, is one of 321 researchers in the EU to benefit from a €657million fund under the EU Horizon Europe programme. The researchers are being supported with ERC Consolidator Grants which are aimed at distinguished scientists who have between seven and 12 years’ experience after their PhDs, to help them to pursue their most promising ideas. Dr McCarthy’s project - Systems of Transmitting Early Modern Manuscript Verse, 1475–1700 (STEMMA) - will run over five years, offering the first large-scale quantitative analysis of the circulation of early modern English poetry in manuscript over more than two centuries. “Scholars have tended to address individual manuscripts as case studies. Through my research project, STEMMA, our aim is to revolutionise the study of manuscript poetry by taking a data-driven approach to identify patterns and trends at scale,” Dr McCarthy said. At its centre is the poet John Donne, whose reluctance to circulate his verse makes the survival of at least 4,249 manuscripts of his work all the more puzzling; the poems of his next most-circulated contemporary survive in fewer than 1,000 witnesses. Dr McCarthy added: “Initially what we’re doing is looking at handwritten collections of poems called manuscript miscellanies to see where there are overlaps in their contents that suggest shared sources or copying. This kind of work has been hard to do for small groups of manuscripts because we often don’t know much about the people who copied them or, in many cases, the poets they’re copying.” Dr McCarthy has secured permission to use six of the most comprehensive datasets about the contents of early modern manuscripts, about 1 million records in total, in order to understand how poetry circulated in the English-speaking world. “The idea is that we’ll combine and clean these datasets, assign each poem a unique identifier, and then run network analysis on the poems and manuscripts rather than the people. This may then turn up people, whether or not we know their names,” she said. Dr McCarthy added: “This research will allow us to see how surviving manuscripts connect, but it will also show us where documents may be missing or overlooked, all of which should change our understanding of who shared early modern English verse in manuscript, how, and to what ends.” Dr McCarthy first joined University of Galway as a Postdoctoral researcher on Professor Marie-Louise Coolahan’s RECIRC project in 2014. After working as a lecturer and later a senior lecturer in Australia, she return to the University in 2022 as an IRC Consolidator Laureate. The ERC Consolidator Grant will enable Dr McCarthy to build an interdisciplinary team of three postdocs and a PhD student to conduct archival research and computational analysis. Ends

SMARTSHAPE consortium, led from University of Galway, will develop a disruptive technology sensor  The European Union has awarded a European consortium €4.4million for the SMARTSHAPE project to focus on developing an implantable medical device for continuous blood pressure monitoring. Hypertension is the leading global contributor to premature death, accounting for more than 9 million deaths a year. Elevated blood pressure is a chronic lifetime risk factor that can lead to serious cardiovascular events if undiagnosed or poorly controlled. Many high-risk patients require long-term monitoring to tailor drug treatments and improve healthcare outcomes, but there is no clinically accepted method of continuous beat-to-beat blood pressure monitoring that patients can use outside of the hospital setting.  The SMARTSHAPE consortium is led by Professor William Wijns, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded Research Professor in Interventional Cardiology at University of Galway’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. According to Professor Wijns: “The best innovations start with a clinical need. Patients who require monitoring are better off in their own homes rather than in a hospital setting. There is a huge market opportunity for a medical-grade, user-friendly, and minimally invasive solution for continuous blood pressure monitoring.” Professor Wijns is also a Funded Investigator at CÚRAM, the SFI research centre for medical devices based at University of Galway which focuses on developing biomedical implants, therapeutic and diagnostic devices that address the needs of patients living with chronic illness. Dr Atif Shahzad, joint director of the Smart Sensors Lab at the University of Galway and a research fellow at the Institute of Metabolism and Systems Research at the University of Birmingham, said: “Our SMARTSHAPE consortium has developed an IP-protected technologically disruptive sensor for continuous pressure measurement. There are challenges related to biocompatibility, longevity, and delivery to the target tissue, and these need to be overcome to deliver the sensor to the market.”  Dr Shahzad added: “This project will address these challenges by formulating an innovative biomaterial: a novel temperature-dependent shape memory polymer (SMP). SMPs will enable the development of a microsensor that can be curled up, introduced into the body through a minimally invasive procedure, and ‘opened up’ when placed at body temperature to take a predefined shape.” The consortium of eight partner institutions is led by the University of Galway and includes partners across Ireland, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, consisting of two academic partners, two multinationals, one ISO-certified company, two SMEs and a patient collaboration company. Kevin Michels-Kim, chief executive of Merakoi, which facilitates patient collaboration in research. He said: “We are committed to putting the patient at the centre of SMARTSHAPE, allowing us to create novel solutions that truly meet the needs of patients. Merakoi will play a crucial role in the SMARTSHAPE consortium by integrating the patient voice across the product lifecycle. Our ability to harness deep patient understanding from the start enables the consortium to develop patient-beneficial solutions that maximise the adoption and impact of innovative technologies and devices.” Dr Sandra Ganly, Senior Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Risk Factor Research, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, at the University of Galway, said: “Blood pressure monitoring will represent the first SMARTSHAPE application. However, the potential of this sensing solution goes significantly beyond BP monitoring. Continuous physiological pressure monitoring can provide key information for early diagnosis, patient-specific treatment, and preventive healthcare in a wide range of healthcare indications. This will significantly broaden the potential and open avenues for other products and research innovation.” Ends

Johnson & Johnson announced today its prestigious Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Undergraduate Award recipients from University of Galway. The Award recognises outstanding female students in STEM2D disciplines: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Manufacturing and Design. Each recipient will receive a student award, industry mentoring and leadership training, along with the opportunity to attend careers workshops, visit Johnson & Johnson sites and participate in WiSTEM2D events designed to support them with pursuing future STEM careers. The Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D programme fuels the development of the female STEM2D talent pipeline by awarding and sponsoring girls and women at critical points in their educational experience and their careers, in STEM disciplines. The Undergraduate programme was first introduced at University of Limerick in 2016. Since then, it has expanded to include University College Cork in 2018, University of Galway in 2021, and Munster Technological University in 2022, supporting more than 400 female students over the last 6 years. The University of Galway students selected to receive the scholarships are: Emer Nic Roibín; Bachelor of Science; Belfast; Co. Antrim Gemma O'Brien Hehir; Biomedical Engineering; Galway Laura Burke; Biomedical Engineering, Moycullen; Galway Laura Quinn; Bachelor of Arts (Mathematical Studies and Information Technology); Renmore, Galway Mairéad Rowland; Biomedical Science; Rossport, Ballina, Co. Mayo Niamh Corcoran; Biomedical Engineering; Leacarrow, Co. Roscommon Rebeccca Norris; Bachelor of Science; Athlone, Co. Westmeath Sarah Daves; Marine Science; Austin, Texas; USA Sophie Spellissy; Computer Science and Information Technology; Ennis, Co. Clare Syakira Amani Khairul Nazri; Bachelor of Science (Biotechnology); Waterford City Michael Gilvarry, General Manager at Cerenovus said:“I would like to congratulate the students who have been chosen as recipients of the WiSTEM2D award. I am sure that they will enjoy the benefits that the programme has them to offer in supporting career development, including visits to our facilities, and the opportunity to engage with a mentor. Johnson & Johnson recognises the importance of supporting women early in their careers, to aid the development of female STEM leaders for the future. We believe in the power of diversity and inclusion to drive innovation and progress. That's why we are committed to supporting women in STEM, and providing them with the resources, opportunities, and support they need to succeed and thrive in their careers. Programmes like WiSTEM2D help allow us to partner with academic institutions to develop high-impact strategies, which can inspire and support the STEM workforce of the future.” University of Galway President, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh said: “We are delighted to strengthen our partnerships with industry and especially with Johnson & Johnson through initiatives such as the WiSTEM2D programme. We can achieve more together as the Irish term Meitheal suggests - describing how neighbours would come together to achieve a mutually better harvest. As access to tertiary education expands, we recognise that support for underrepresented students while they are part of our community is critical. Industry support for our underrepresented students in STEM can act as a catalyst to level the playing field, which is increasingly important against the backdrop of growing diversity in Ireland and the need to recognise and design for intersectionality in education. “The industry mentorship, provided as part of the programme, is a significant boon to our female student scientists, mathematicians and engineers and it is an essential ingredient, which energises them to address the world’s most pressing challenges, as framed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to innovate for our society, our people and our planet. We care about our students and their ambitions and we are guided by our values of openness, excellence, sustainability and respect in our role in shaping our students as the leaders of the future.” The awards ceremony was held in Áras Na Mac Léinn, University of Galway, and was also attended by Anna Rafferty, Director of Strategy, Johnson & Johnson Campus Ireland; Anna Lisa Smullin, Senior R&D Engineer and WiSTEM2D Lead at CERENOVUS; and Cara Feely, Senior Regulatory Affairs Specialist at CERENOVUS. Recipients of the Johnson & Johnson WiSTEM2D Award scholarship were also presented with bespoke framed glass artwork created by Fermoy-based artist, Suzanne O’Sullivan. Ends