About 50 participants took part in the virtual event, designed to raise awareness of the U.S. - Ireland R&D Partnership Program. The workshop highlighted unique scientific opportunities and priorities in vision research.
The program launched in 2006 and involves funding agencies from the U.S., the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Its goal is to increase research and development collaborations between researchers in the three countries. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Republic of Ireland’s Science Foundation Ireland, the Health Research Board, and Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Research and Development Division participate in the health area of the partnership, including the use of sensors or nanotechnology in health.
The partnership supports trilateral research projects, with participating agencies funding joint research conducted in their home country. To facilitate a "single proposal, single review" mechanism, submissions from tri-jurisdictional teams undergo peer review only through existing research project grant (R01) funding programs at NIH. To date, 9 NIH institutes and centers have funded 16 R01s.
The December 21, 2023, event was organized in coordination with the Fogarty International Center, the NIH Center for Scientific Review, the NIH Office of the Director, and Queen’s University, Belfast.