New online site goes live for DCU COVID-19 Research and Innovation Hub
A new online site for the DCU COVID-19 Research & Innovation Hub is now live.
The site - dcu.ie/covid19-research - documents each of the 16 multi-disciplinary projects supported by DCU's new hub to work exclusively on the addressing the challenges of COVID-19.
The reserach hub is led by Professor Christine Loscher.
"The hub is a living example of a rapid response research initiative, placing collaboration, at both national and international level at the heart of what we do and bringing DCU’s interdisciplinary research capabilities together to make a strong and positive contribution by providing solutions to the many challenges we are now facing," Prof Loscher said.
"The projects funded are focused not just on testing but also on frontline workers, children, vulnerable groups, students and businesses within our society."
Developing a low-cost device for the detection of Covid-19 in health-care settings, deploying a rapid testing solution to enable a faster turn-around for Covid-19 test results, finding the right antibody test solution for Ireland, and enabling the deaf community to interpret the crisis are among a suite of innovations being pursued by the new research hub established in response to the global pandemic.
The hub is leveraging Dublin City University’s research expertise, in collaboration with national and international stakeholders, with a view to developing solutions that can be implemented and deployed within a three to six months time frame.
These research projects are addressing five key areas: technologies for rapid diagnostics for Covid-19; responding to the challenges faced by frontline healthcare workers in hospitals and nursing home environments; developing novel solutions to enhance the national testing strategy; mitigating the impact on organisations, workers and the economy; tackling societal issues in a Covid-19 world (education, business, the citizen).
The newly established DCU Covid-19 R&I Hub has placed a particular focus on testing and turn-around times for tests, in response to the national and international testing crisis, with researchers collaborating across the university's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) disciplines.
The DCU COVID-19 Research & Innovation Hub is funded by DCU Educational Trust. The Trust is currently seeking philanthropic support for the important work of the Covid-19 Research and Innovation Hub.
To offer support or find out more, please email sabina.cotter@dcu.ie.