CÚRAM awarded €14m European funding to drive medical device research

CÚRAM, the SFI research centre for medical devices at University of Galway, has been awarded almost €14 million to create 50 postdoctoral fellowship opportunities to develop future leaders in medical device research.

The co-funding programme involves €7.1m from the European Union and €6.8m from CÚRAM to launch MedTrain+, an enhanced innovative Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Action training programme.

CÚRAM is hosted by University of Galway, with academic partners at 10 higher education institutions across Ireland. The new postdoctoral research positions will be based across all the partner institutions.

This award adds to the substantial funding generated by researchers at CÚRAM who have attracted more than €70 million in EU investment during its first eight years.

Professor Abhay Pandit said: “CÚRAM is perfectly positioned to coordinate MedTrain+ given its innovative strengths, active industry collaborations, and its missions to continue to train and empower the next generation of researchers who can engage with the public and stakeholders to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines and CÚRAM outputs. The 50 postdoctoral researchers will join our large team of multidisciplinary researchers working at the cutting edge of medical devices.”

The MedTrain+ programme duration is 60 months, with fellows free to choose any research area within CÚRAM’s remit, as well as their supervisor and secondment organisation. This unique postdoctoral training program is structured so that researchers will be provided with a unique skill set that will give them an option of a multitude of career choices.

In January 2021, CÚRAM began its second phase of work with a further investment of €46.3m from SFI to bring new treatments from the laboratory to patients. This came as part of the Government’s re-investment in SFI Research Centres across the country.

Professor Abhay Pandit added: “The MedTrain+ funding supports CÚRAM’s vision to be a global leader in creating and translating clinic-ready and patient-focused medical devices; to develop the next generation of industry-relevant, publicly engaged researchers and to become an anchor for industry applicable research.”

MedTrain+ research outputs will benefit outcomes for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, and musculoskeletal diseases. It also offers fellows the unique opportunity to work in Europe’s first certified Green Lab at University of Galway.

MedTrain+ will combine the expertise across CÚRAM’s academic network to host and train fellows with existing partnerships with SME and multinational companies in the medical device, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors based in Ireland and abroad. These non-academic secondment visits will provide the training ground for designing and manufacturing next-generation devices and implants, some of which can be developed with strong clinical collaborations to enable rapid translation to clinics.

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