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Strategic Research Programmes

In addition to our core research programme, FutureNeuro researchers play leading roles in a number of large-scale research and training programmes. For these we partner with other SFI Centres, with industry, as well as academic partners in the UK and Ireland.

Precision-ALS represents a €10 million research programme involving researchers at the SFI Research Centres ADAPT and FutureNeuro, alongside the TRICALS Consortium, Europe’s largest ALS research initiative. National and international industry partners, together with charitable organisations and patient advocacy groups, are actively engaged in generating a sustainable precision medicine-based approach to drug development. This collaborative effort is poised to yield numerous benefits, including improved clinical outcomes for patients and a reduction in the economic burden associated with these diseases.

Precision-ALS will provide an innovative and interactive platform for all ALS clinical research across Europe, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse large amounts of data. The programme cements Ireland’s global leadership in leveraging AI and Machine Learning for ALS research, promising significant job creation in clinical and data science research, new technologies and drug development. The FutureNeuro researchers involved are Prof Orla Hardiman, Prof Jochen Prehn, Prof Colin Doherty and Dr Hugh Kearney.

Read about Precision-ALS

Empower

EMPOWER, a €10 million research programme, focuses on advancing the multidisciplinary field of data governance. Supported by industry partners and SFI funding, EMPOWER unites top-tier experts from academia and private sectors to tackle current data governance challenges. With four SFI Centres – Lero (Lead), ADAPT, Insight and FutureNeuro – participating, EMPOWER aims to pioneer novel systems and methodologies facilitating innovative data governance for real-world applications and data-driven solutions. The FutureNeuro researchers involved are Prof Colin Doherty  and Prof Kathleen Bennett

FutureNeuro are leading two health-data projects within EMPOWER:

  • The DataScape project, co-funded with IQVIA, uses qualitative research methods to explore how and why data is used for healthcare improvement and research, and what are the main challenges to the sharing of health data among individuals who access healthcare, healthcare practitioners, and those involved in data protection.
  • The LEGEND project, co-funded with Novartis Irl., is pioneering the development of a prototype learning health system that integrates data from operational hospital systems and clinical data captured from day-to-day. By involving healthcare professionals, management staff and research scientists and creating analytical dashboards, this study aims to cultivate a dynamic learning environment whereby data will be effectively fed back into clinical practice, and ultimately improve care pathways.
Discover more about EMPOWER

NeuroInsight

Led by FutureNeuro, and delivered in partnership with the SFI Insight Centre, this €4 million EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship programme is currently training 33 international research fellows to develop advanced data skills for research into neurological conditions. The fellows are supervised by a multidisciplinary supervisory team and develop skills in data science – AI, machine and deep learning, data analysis and integration – and apply them to address challenges from neurological conditions. 

Discover more about NeuroInsight

AI-EPOCMON

AI-EPOCMON is a €1.60M SFI/NSF Centre-to-Centre award in collaboration with Ulster University and Texas A&M University to develop a rapid AI- enabled point-of-care Anti-Epileptic Drug (AED) test to optimise vulnerable patients’ outcome through enhanced compliance and optimisation of the medication regimen.