July 2015

The Blackstone Charitable Foundation today announced the first international expansion of its campus entrepreneurship programme, Blackstone LaunchPad, to Ireland. Ireland becomes the seventh Blackstone LaunchPad region and its first international one, after Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Montana, and California. The Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s three-year, €2 million grant will establish a partnership between National University of Ireland Galway, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Cork to introduce entrepreneurship as a viable career option and provide over 50,000 students, regardless of major, with a network of venture coaches and an entrepreneurial support system.  The announcement event at Trinity College Dublin was attended by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., who delivered remarks, and United States Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O’Malley, University College Cork President Dr Michael Murphy, Dr Jim Browne, President of NUI Galway, and Professor Linda Hogan, Vice-Provost and Chief Academic Officer and Deputy President of Trinity College Dublin. Blackstone LaunchPad in Ireland will connect the university campuses, the business community, and local entrepreneurs to create an environment that nurtures students and provides them with the skills and network necessary to succeed as entrepreneurs. With a physical presence on each university campus and access to the Blackstone LaunchPad Global Network Technology Platform, the programme has the potential to generate some 1,500 new ventures and 3,700 new jobs across Ireland over the next five years.  Welcoming the announcement, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny T.D., said, “In rebuilding our economy we are promoting policies that support enterprise and job creation across a range of different sectors.  It is our goal that this balanced recovery will lead to sustainable full employment by 2018.  To achieve this vision, we need to embrace the entrepreneurial instincts of students in Irish universities - for them to ask not, ‘what company do I want to work for?’ but, ‘what company do I want to create?’ “The Blackstone LaunchPad programme will foster an entrepreneurial mind-set in students across the country and equip the entrepreneurs of today with the expertise to become the employers of tomorrow.  Very importantly, this programme supports, encourages and enables our most driven young people to build their futures and pursue innovation in Ireland.  The future of business development and international investment in Ireland is closely related to our international links with the world and I am proud that Ireland was chosen as the first global expansion of this highly successful programme.” “Ireland’s young people are driven, curious, and innovative thinkers – all qualities necessary to be successful entrepreneurs,” said Blackstone’s Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder Stephen A. Schwarzman. “Blackstone LaunchPad will enable these students to develop entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, and build strong enterprises rooted in Ireland, and further strengthen economic activity across the country.”  Dr Jim Browne, NUI Galway President, said: “We want our students to participate in this type of activity, so that they learn prior to graduation the potential they have and gain the confidence to go out into the world to shape their own futures. At NUI Galway we have a thriving ecosystem of student innovation and entrepreneurship.   Through the Blackstone LaunchPad program our students will now have access to an even more powerful international network, based on this national partnership between our three universities.  I’m delighted to acknowledge the vision and funding of Blackstone Charitable Foundation, with support from Galway University Foundation, to ensure that our students will develop their capacity for innovation and become the entrepreneurs of the future.” Blackstone LaunchPad is modelled after a successful programme developed at the University of Miami in 2008, which has generated 6,000 ventures and drawn over 10,000 participants since its establishment. Each regional programme established through the Blackstone Charitable Foundation is linked, drawing ideas and best practices from across 15 campuses, giving student entrepreneurs in Ireland access to an international community of over 350,000 of their peers and expert advisers.  Funding for this programme is made possible through The Blackstone Charitable Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Initiative, which seeks to support the development of ecosystems for aspiring entrepreneurs creating the high-growth ventures that are known to spark economic growth. Due to the early success of Blackstone LaunchPad following its implementation in Michigan, The Blackstone Charitable Foundation was recognized by President Obama’s “Startup America” Initiative and pledged to expand the programme to five new regions over five years. That pledge was fulfilled by the program’s earlier expansion to California. -Ends-

The annual conference of the European Cinema Research Forum will be held at the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, NUI Galway from 7-8 July. Now in its fifteenth year, the European Cinema Research Forum gathers together academics and practitioners from across the continent and beyond to discuss and debate issues relating to the diverse range of films produced within Europe. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘The representation of space and place in European film’. It will address a wide range of topics, from the depiction of Paris in the films of French filmmaking great Jean Renoir to the representation of home in contemporary Turkish cinema. A number of papers will focus on contemporary Irish cinema, while the conference also includes several film practitioners who will be discussing their own work as it relates to the topics of debate. Dr Conn Holohan, Lecturer in Film at NUI Galway’s Huston School of Film and Digital Media, said: “The advantage of a conference such as this is that it brings together researchers from across a range of departments and from wide range of backgrounds in terms of expertise and interest. Participants largely come from film backgrounds, but the conference also attracts speakers from language and literature departments across Europe and the United States, all of whom bring different geographical and conceptual perspectives to the discussion of European film.” Keynote speakers at this year’s conference are Professor Thomas Elsaesser and film scholar and artist Professor Victor Burgin. With his 2005 publication, European Cinema: Face to Face with Hollywood,Professor Elsaesser explored the significance and viability of a distinct European cinema in an age of cultural globalisation. His talk will directly address the arguments raised in this book and extend them into a contemporary era in which European cinema has increasingly become absorbed into the generic category of ‘world cinema’. Professor Victor Burgin is a renowned theorist of the still and moving image, as well as a highly influential artist whose works have been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Tate Modern in London. Professor Burgin will be discussing the intersection of his theory and practice in conversation with Professor Ryan Bishop. The programme will also include a projection of Burgin’s digital projection works A Place to Read and Parzival. -Ends-  

A new research partnership between J.K. Rowling’s international children’s organisation Lumos and a world-renowned Irish university will increase global momentum to transform the lives of children living separated from their families in orphanages. An estimated eight million children worldwide live in institutions and so-called orphanages, though at least 80% have living parents, most of who could look after them with some support. Research by the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at the National University of Ireland Galway, with Lumos, will aim to increase global understanding of why so many children are separated from families and placed in orphanages in different regions of the world, evaluate methods of deinstitutionalisation, and investigate the best ways to support families to stay together. Eighty years of scientific research has shown that children are best raised in families and that growing up in institutional care – deprived of the close, sustained adult engagement they receive in a family - has a negative impact on children’s physical, intellectual and emotional development. The European Union, the US Government and a number of international aid donors are committed to ending institutionalisation. While the science is consistent, further research is needed to gain a fuller understanding of the causes of institutionalisation and long-term solutions. Lumos and National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway) share common goals including finding practical, cost-effective and sustainable ways to support families and children - particularly those who are very poor, disabled or from minorities - to stay together in the community; and empowering children and families to play a meaningful role in changing attitudes and practices. Lumos – which was recently selected as the winner of the 2015 UK Charity Awards - is dedicated to ending the institutionalisation of children worldwide by 2050. The non-profit organisation has a track record in demonstrating that most children can be reunited with families given the right support. Lumos is helping Moldova, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic to replace models of care based on institutions with education, health and social services to support vulnerable families to stay together in the community. It is also working in Ukraine, Serbia and Haiti. Meanwhile, the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre at NUI Galway is at the forefront of research, education and training in family support and youth development. It is the hub of an international network of universities, centres of excellence and agencies in the children and youth field. The research partnership will: Monitor the impact of moving from institutions to family based care on children and young people as they grow up in terms of health, quality to life and future chances; Evaluate ten years of Lumos’ work in its programme countries; Identify best practice for achieving the deinstitutionalisation of children across different regions of the world; Explore the cost-benefit in different regions of the world of replacing institutions with community based services; Develop models for advancing the work of Lumos in new regions around the world such as South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Thanks to a generous grant from The Atlantic Philanthropies, the partnership will start its activities by establishing links and learning opportunities between Irish examples of best practice, much of it also supported by Atlantic, and governments and practitioners in countries in the process of reforming systems of care and protection of children. Lumos CEO Georgette Mulheir – a pioneer over 20 years of a deinstitutionalisation model adopted by many governments, and named last year as one of the world’s most influential social workers – said: “Our mission is to help eight million children in institutions by promoting large-scale reform through our influence on governments and major international aid donors. We need compelling evidence to achieve the greatest impact. We are delighted to work with NUI Galway, which will bring world-leading independent academic rigour to our programmes – as well as an understanding of what works in practice to gain the best outcomes for children.” The UNESCO Chair Professor Pat Dolan, NUI Galway, will work with UNESCO Chair Professor Mark Brennan at Pennsylvania State University in the US on the Lumos project. Professor Dolan said: “The prospect of completing usable real-world research that helps to end the institutionalisation of children and youth globally, will be particularly fitting not only for UNESCO, and our research centre in NUI Galway, but for Ireland as a country given its sad and horrific past track record in relation to children in large orphanages."  -ends-

NUI Galway has announced the winners of the 2015 Ryan Award for Innovation, and the annual President’s Awards for Research Excellence. These awards are made to members of the NUI Galway research community, by the University’s President Dr Jim Browne, in recognition of their outstanding and innovative research. The Ryan Award for Innovation 2015 went to the team behind The Galway energy-efficient Car’ (the Geec), consisting of Engineering lecturers Dr Nathan Quinlan, Dr Rory Monaghan and Dr Maeve Duffy. The lecturers, all from the College of Engineering and Informatics, worked with a team of NUI Galway engineering students to design and build the fuel-efficient car which can achieve the equivalent of 8,000 miles per gallon. In May 2015, the students competed with the car in the European round of Shell Eco-marathon in Rotterdam. It was Ireland’s first ever entry in the event with the team finishing in the top half of the leader board. Now in its second year, the Ryan Award for Innovation is aimed at recognising and facilitating the development and translation of innovative ideas in the area of Environment, Marine and Energy, into outputs with societal and economic impact. This initiative has been supported by the Tony Ryan Trust and builds upon past generous support from the Ryan Family. The Ryan Award is a very prestigious award and €25,000 is a significant amount of funding to make a difference in progressing an innovation, technology or idea to the next level, while delivering impact. In addition, the winners of the 2015 President’s Awards for Research Excellence were announced as: In the ‘Early Stage Researcher’ category: Dr Eilionóir Flynn, Acting Director of the Centre for Disability Law, Institute for Lifecourse and Society Dr Elaine Dunleavy, Centre for Chromosome Biology and School of Natural Sciences Professor Declan Devane, School of Nursing and Midwifery In the ‘Established Researcher’ category: Professor Steven Ellis, Professor of History, School of Humanities Dr Molly Byrne, HRB Research Leader and School of Psychology Professor Afshin Samali, Apoptosis Research Centre, and School of Natural Sciences In the ‘Research Supervisor’ category: Dr Aaron Potito, Head of School of Geography and Archaeology Dr Patrick McGarry, Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics Dr Laoise McNamara, Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics. Speaking at the event, Dr Jim Browne said: “Earlier this year, we launched our new strategic plan, entitled Vision 2020. This ambitious plan aims to bring NUI Galway into the top 200 universities in the world while securing €100 million in competitive funding from the EU under the Horizon 2020 programme. In our first year we have had tremendous success and so far, NUI Galway leads the field amongst the Irish universities in attracting EU research funds. Thanks to the commitment of our research colleagues across many areas, from biosciences to the social sciences, we are on track to meet our ambitious target by 2020.” -ends-

President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins was the special guest at an event in NUI Galway today celebrating the prodigious career of Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Professor Emeritus in History. One of the great historians of his generation, Professor Ó Tuathaigh has garnered enormous respect as a teacher, writer, university leader and public intellectual for over 40 years. The event also saw the launch of Culture and Society in Ireland since 1750 - Essays in honour of Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh. The new book brings together twenty-three essays by academic colleagues and by former students. Reflecting Ó Tuathaigh’s own versatility, the subject matter of the essays ranges widely, from the Famine of 1741 to the plays of Martin McDonagh, from Irish soldiers to Irish traditional musicians, from prisons to dispensaries. Topics also include the novels of Gerard Griffin and William Carleton in the nineteenth century, and Woman’s Way magazine in the 1960s. Culture and Society in Ireland since 1750 features new research as well as probing reassessments of some of the major changes of recent centuries in Ireland. A native of Limerick, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh came to study at University College Galway (now NUI Galway) in the 1960s. Following post-graduate studies at University College Galway and Cambridge University, he returned to take a full-time post in History in 1971, and soon established his academic reputation with his book Ireland before the Famine. A popular lecturer, he became known more widely during the 1970s through his media contributions and public lectures in both Irish and English. As a Dean of Arts and Vice-President of the University, and as a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland, he participated to a significant degree in university administration. Prominent in public life, he has acted as a chairperson of Údaras na Gaeltachta and of Bord na Gaeilge. Throughout his career, Professor Ó Tuathaigh has been known throughout Ireland as a generous supporter of the work of voluntary and community organisations concerned with heritage and cultural matters. “Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh has long been recognised as a commentator of originality, generosity and rare insight on the Irish experience. He continues to be a fluent and distinctive voice, in both Irish and English, displaying a depth of knowledge and breadth of passion for this country”, said Dr John Cunningham, Lecturer in History at NUI Galway who co-edited the new book with his colleague Dr Niall Ó Ciosáin. History has a long and distinguished tradition at NUI Galway. One of the first disciplines to be taught at the University, it has emerged from inauspicious beginnings in the midst of the Great Famine to become one of the top history departments in the world, ranking highly in international QS subject ranking in 2015. -ends-

Ahead of its move to the UN Headquarters in New York, a photography exhibition commission by UNESCO in 1949, is to be presented by NUI Galway from 9-24 July. The images toured the world not long after World War II in an effort to build awareness and understanding of human rights, and following on from the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Now the exhibition, The Changing Face of Human Rights, which takes place in St. Nicholas Collegiate Church in the heart of Galway City, will be displayed alongside modern images demonstrating perceptions of human rights today. The exhibition is an integral part the Galway International Summer School on the Arts and Human Rights that runs from 9-11 July at NUI Galway. The Summer School, organised by the Irish Centre for Human Rights, brings together arts and human rights practitioners to explore their shared space. Events take the form of panel discussions, exhibitions and performances as well as three parallel-track workshops on the topics of: literature and human rights; the visual arts and human rights; and music and human rights. Performances during the Summer School will include a free public performance on Thursday 9 July at 8pm in the CUBE in Áras Na Mac Léinn in NUI Galway. The event will feature Ariel Dorfman’s drama, ‘Speak Truth to Power: Voices from Beyond the Dark’, directed by Professor Patrick Lonergan, Director of NUI Galway’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance. This will be directly followed by a concert based around the piper Mickey Dunne who came from an Irish Travelling family who were steeped in the playing and protecting of Irish Music on the Uilleann Pipes. The concert will also feature his daughter Bríd on fiddle and the Galway established composer, musical director and pianist Carl Hession. Songs will be presented by the contemporary folk singer Mary Mc Partlan and the evening will be narrated by Professor Donncha O’Connell, Head of the Law School at NUI Galway. “Practitioners in the areas of the arts and human rights, both of which are strongly aligned with issues such as social justice, cultural expression and cultural freedom, can learn from each other and understand each other much better”, explains Professor Michael O’Flaherty, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway and co-director of the Summer School with Dr Dominique Bouchard, Curator at the Hunt Museum. Professor O’Flaherty continued: “The Changing Face of Human Rights is a fascinating and moving photographic exhibition. Over time the display was ‘lost’ until re-curated last year by the Danish Institute of Human Rights. Now those historic photos will feature in Galway side-by-side with the winning images from our recent international photographic competition. In this context we get a sense of how some notions of human rights develop over time while others seem not to change at all.” The photographic competition judges include Irish Times Photographic Editor Frank Millar, internationally renowned artist Paul Seawright, and Professor Rod Stoneman, irector of the Huston School of Film and Digital Media at NUI Galway. The exhibition is open from 10am to 5pm during normal public visiting times of the Church. Entry is free of charge and visitors are invited to make a small donation for Church upkeep. -ends-

An international conference will take place at NUI Galway to discuss theatre and performance archives. 'Performing the Archive' is a collaboration between the University’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance and its James Hardiman Library, and will run from 22-24 July. The event capitalises on the renowned theatre collections of the James Hardiman Library and the academic expertise of NUI Galway's Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance. The three-day conference is bringing together both national and international scholars, practitioners and artists including: Professor Tracy C. Davis, Northwestern University, Chicago; Professor Catherine Cole, University of California, Berkeley; Dr Doug Reside, New York Public Library; Professor Patrick Lonergan and Professor Lionel Pilkington, NUI Galway; Dr Emilie Pine, University College Dublin; and Dr Hugh Denard of Trinity College Dublin. Artist speakers will also feature including Louise Lowe, Anu Productions, and playwright and journalist Colin Murphy. Conference delegates will address issues such as developing new performance work and research projects based on archival materials including scripts, costume designs, prompt books, as well as digitised audio and video of performances. John Cox, NUI Galway Librarian, said: “Archives are vital to the academic mission. The James Hardiman Library has a particular strength in theatre archives, while a major project at the University, the largest of its kind internationally, to digitise the archive of the Abbey Theatre is nearing conclusion. Digital archives and in collaboration with academic colleagues on campus are opening up new opportunities for teaching and research, while also presenting a range of challenges, so this conference is very timely in promoting engagement with and among experts in the field.” Within the conference will be a staged reading of a historic text from the archives of the Hardiman Library. Pilgrims is a play staged at the Abbey Theatre in 1938, written by Mary Rynne and has never received a revival in over 70 years and is an example of a forgotten female Irish and Abbey playwright. Curated by Ciara O’Dowd, this reading is directed by the Druid Director in Residence at NUI Galway, Thomas Conway. The conference is supported by the Irish Research Council New Foundations Scheme, the American Society for Theatre Research and NUI Galway. -Ends-

An NUI Galway Ryan Institute project will see 20 children’s books, written and illustrated by this year’s sixth class students of Galway Educate Together National School, reach global audiences through the EcoScience Writers in Schools project. The goal of this unique project was to create a set of fun and informative teaching resources by supporting the students to write a story for their younger peers on an environmental subject of their choosing. The class chose to write about creatures of the North Atlantic Ocean, incorporating facts into their fictional prose, in a way that is both entertaining and educational. Dr Sarah Knight, who led this project, said: “When I applied for the funding for this project I had a good idea of its potential, but really it has far surpassed my expectations. The students, and teacher Barry McGuire, of Galway Educate Together completely committed themselves to this project and the proof of that is in the products! These books are all available as flipbooks and downloadable PDFs through the project website, so young people across Galway, and around the world, can learn from them and be inspired too!” The book Dolphin’s First Day opens with a beautiful scene of a mother dolphin nudging her newborn to the surface to take his first breath. In The Seamount, all sorts of creatures emerge from the habitat to help Gobby the goblin shark scare off the nearly invisible cranchiid squid that is threatening some of the creatures with her greedy appetite. The Gannet and the Smart Fish is an around the world tale of one hungry seabird’s quest to fill her tummy. With twenty books and one graphic poster the end result, there is sure to be something to entertain every young reader. Professor Colin Brown, Director of NUI Galway’s Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy Research, said: “This is a fantastic project led by a fantastic person. Having produced a resource like this that anyone in the world can read is where we see the future of our outreach education going. The fact that we can produce such a high quality product for teachers in classrooms all over the world is very rewarding indeed. It’s projects like this that put the Ryan Institute on the international stage. We expect a lot of people to use these materials, and, by doing so it will increase visitor traffic to our main website to learn of the high quality research that is going on here in the West of Ireland”. Working alongside Dr Knight were Gesture Media, who produced the beautiful flipbooks and website, and iSupply printing, who printed hardback copies for each of the students and a full-set for the school itself. Soft copies of any of the books will be available to order directly from iSupply, through the project website. EcoScience Writers was funded by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government under the Local Agenda 21 Environmental Partnership Fund administered through Galway City Council. For more information visit the EcoScience Writers website at www.ecosciencewriters.com. -Ends-

A new discovery which reveals how bacteria cling to the surfaces of medical devices, could have potential to significantly reduce infections from devices like catheters and other lines inserted into the body. The HRB-funded research, published today in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, was conducted by Professor James O'Gara in NUI Galway and Dr Eoghan O'Neill in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. According to Professor O'Gara, from the Department of Microbiology at NUI Galway: "We've discovered a new way that bacteria can attach themselves to the walls of a medical device and create a protective coating that stops our immune system and antibiotics from attacking them. MRSA can secrete an enzyme, called coagulase, that converts a component of our blood, fibrinogen, into fibrin. Fibrin is the protein that helps our blood to clot. This then acts as a scaffold onto which the bacteria attach themselves to the walls of the device, usually a plastic tube or catheter, and they also create a protective barrier with the fibrin that keep out antibiotics and our own immune system." Dr O'Neill takes up the story: "We've tested some drugs that are known to break up blood clots and have found that they can break up the biofilms protecting these dangerous bacteria. This opens the possibility of us getting in early and disrupting the bacteria in the initial stages of an infection. When we break up the biofilm, we expose the bacteria to the patient's own immune system response as well as allow us to try antibiotics against it." "This discovery could make a significant global contribution to reducing device-related infections in hospitals", according to Dr Graham Love, Chief Executive at the Health Research Board. "This is the second major discovery by Professor O'Gara and Dr O'Neill and their teams at NUI Galawy and the Royal College of Surgeons about how bacteria form biofilms. They are world leaders in their fields and the HRB is determined to keep them, and researchers like them, in Ireland. We are committed to creating the right environment in which people can both conduct top quality health research, and quickly convert those findings into new advances in patient care and patient outcomes." A video recording of Professor O'Gara explaining his discovery is available here.  The results are published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, and available at their website.  -Ends-

The Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Simon Coveney TD, will launch the latest report on Ireland’s Ocean Economy at the 2nd Annual Ocean Wealth Conference, taking place in Ringaskiddy, Cork, today as part of Ireland’s national maritime festival ‘SeaFest’. The report, compiled by NUI Galway’s Socio-Economic Marine Research Unit (SEMRU) and Teagasc, estimates that the sector contributed an estimated €1.4bn to GDP last year. Ireland’s ‘Blue Economy’ is performing on average better than the general economy with up to 9% growth over the last five years. With an estimated turnover of €4.5bn, the sector employs approximately 18,500 Full-Time Equivalents and new data from shows that in addition to the direct impacts of Ireland’s ocean economy, a further 13,000 are employed across the wider economy providing an additional €3.3bn in turnover. This is the third report on Ireland’s Ocean Economy from NUI Galway’s SEMRU as part of its ongoing process of collection and analysis of marine socio-economic data in Ireland funded by the Marine Institute. Results from the report show trends in Ireland’s Ocean Economy over the period 2010-2012 and provides an estimate of the direct value in 2014. Minister Coveney, speaking ahead of the conference said, “Over the past few years we’ve seen a dramatic and in some cases radical transformation in Ireland’s attitude towards the marine sector generally, with the marine now being viewed as a significant contributor to our economic recovery.  This new data from SEMRU and Teagasc shows that Ireland’s blue economy is performing well in established industries such as seafood, shipping and marine tourism, and is excelling in emerging industries such as high-tech marine products and services, marine biotechnology and maritime commerce.”    Summary of Direct Economic Impacts: The ocean economy had a turnover of €4.2 billion in 2012, rising to an estimated €4.5bn in 2014. The ocean economy provided employment for 17,425 individuals Full Time Equivalents, (FTEs) in 2012, with an estimated increase to 18,480 in 2014. Over the period 2010-2012 a 33% increase in turnover is reported, a further increase of 7% is estimated for the period up to 2014. Employment has also steadily risen, with increase of 5-6%. Top three marine sectors in terms of employment (FTEs): Marine Tourism & Leisure: Employment approx. 6,000 FTEs Seafood & Bioresources (Fisheries, Aquaculture, Seafood Processing, Biotech/Seaweed): Employment over 5,600 FTEs Shipping & Maritime Transport (including international shipping services): Employment over 4,100 FTEs Top three marine sectors in terms of Turnover and Gross Value Added (GVA): Shipping & Maritime Transport (including international shipping services): €2.2bn turnover, €0.5bn GVA Seafood: €1bn turnover, €0.4bn GVA Marine Tourism & Leisure:€0.7bn turnover, €0.3bn GVA Established Marine Industries represent 95% of the total turnover and 93% of total employment in Ireland’s ocean economy. Marine retail services, sea fisheries and seafood processing, all experienced a significant increase in activity, with turnover, GVA and employment increasing across the sector in the period. The aquaculture sector also exhibited increases, albeit of a smaller scale, across all three variables. Emerging Marine Industries representing 5% of the turnover and 7% of employment in Ireland’s ocean economy. In comparison to the established industries, the emerging industries are excelling in terms of growth. High tech marine products and services, marine biotechnology and bio-products and marine commerce experienced large increases in turnover, GVA and employment. Marine renewable energy experienced a more moderate increase in turnover but a large increase in GVA. In terms of employment, however, the marine renewables sector experienced a slight decrease with respect to 2010 levels. The previous Ocean Economy Report published in 2013 referred to the lowest point of the economic contraction (2007-2010), while this report represents a period of slow economic recovery (2010-2012), with a moderate increase in activity, particularly in the shipping and maritime transport sector and in sea fisheries, seafood processing and marine manufacturing, construction and engineering. Estimates based on recent economic indicators suggest a further increase in activity across established and emerging marine industries in the 2012-2014 period. Combined with the confident national economic forecasts recently released by the Department of Finance, the trends shown in this third SEMRU report suggest a positive outlook for Ireland’s ocean economy in 2015. SEMRU also produced estimates of Ireland’s Ocean Economy for the year 2014. It is estimated to be worth €1.4bn, 0.8% GDP. With an estimated direct turnover of approx. €4.5bn, Ireland’s ocean economy employs in excess of 18,400 Full-Time Equivalents. Latest figures also suggest that our ‘blue economy’ is performing on average better than the general economy   “Results are encouraging”, reports Dr Stephen Hynes of SEMRU at NUI Galway “they reflect the economic recovery that Ireland has experienced in the last few years. With the recognition of the potential impact of ‘Blue Growth’ on employment and output, at both a national and EU level, there has never been a greater need for reliable statistics on marine sector activity. Also, it is only by examining the ocean-dependent economy separately from the national economy that we will be able to understand the magnitude of what might be affected by future changes in the oceans and along our coasts.”   Indirect impact of Ireland’s Ocean Economy SEMRU, in conjunction with the Teagasc Rural Economy Development Programme, have also developed the Bio-Economy Input-Output (IO) Model. The Bio-Economy IO model studies the relationship between Ireland’s Marine based and Agriculture sectors and the rest of the economy and can be used to estimate both the direct and indirect effects on output and employment arising from increases or decreases in the output of individual marine sectors. New data arising from the model shows that in addition to the people directly employed in Ireland’s marine industries, a further 13,000 are employed indirectly across the wider economy providing an additional €3.3bn in turnover to the Irish economy. The results of the model suggest that for every €100 in turnover from Ireland’s Ocean Economy, a further €78 is generated indirectly in other sectors of the economy and for every 100 marine jobs created, a further 75 jobs are created in other parts of the economy.   Economic impacts of achieving ‘Harnessing our Ocean Wealth’ Targets The ocean economy report series and associated Input-Output model allows SEMRU to observe and monitor progress on meeting the targets set out in the Government’s Integrated Marine Plan for Ireland - Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth (2012). Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth Strategy outlines a number of specific targets which seek to expand the Irish Marine Sector to a total of €6.4bn in 2020 representing an increase of €3.2bn on 2010. It is estimated that the achievement of these targets will also have additional “knock-on” economic impacts with additional growth of €2.7bn anticipated in the wider economy. Based on the results of running this scenario through the Bio-Economy IO model, it is estimated that 29,300 new jobs could be created if the Ocean Wealth targets are achieved with 16,100 of these coming directly from within the Marine sector itself.  An additional 13,200 jobs are estimated to be created indirectly through increases in demand for products and services required by the marine sector. Prof Cathal O Donoghue of Teagasc added that with the collection of marine socio-economic data, “We are finally able to assess the direct and indirect impacts of national strategies such as Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth and Food Wise 2025 and their impact on employment and output in both the wider economy and in upstream and downstream industries. The impact of Ireland’s ocean economy is particularly notable in Ireland’s rural economy, as highlighted in the report of the Commission for the Economic Development of Rural Areas (CEDRA)”.   Ireland’s Ocean Economy Report Series is funded as part of the Marine Institute’s Beaufort Marine Research Award. The Marine Institute provided funding over a 7-year period to establish marine socio-economic expertise in Ireland and develop a methodology of valuing Ireland’s well established and emerging ocean industries.   The full report is available to download online at www.nuigalway.ie/semru/publications.html and www.ouroceanwealth.ie ENDS

NUI Galway today conferred an Honorary Degree on President of the Federal Republic of Germany, His Excellency Joachim Gauck at the University. NUI Galway President, Dr Jim Browne, said: “It is a great pleasure to announce the visit of Joachim Gauck, President of the Federal Republic of Germany to NUI Galway, where he will be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. This is the highest honour the University can bestow. By honouring him in this way we pay tribute to his great achievements in promoting European democracy and human rights. President Gauck honours us with this visit and we look forward to welcoming him and Daniela Schadt, to the campus where they will participate in a Roundtable Symposium on Human Rights and Development at the Irish Centre for Human Rights before the conferral of the honorary degree.” President Gauck joins the ranks of previous honorary alumni which include, among many others, Nelson Mandela, Hilary Clinton, Enya, Anjelica Huston, and Margaret Atwood. The Honorary Conferring and visit to the University included a Roundtable Discussion with key speakers on Development and Human Rights at the Irish Centre of Human Rights at NUI Galway. Among the Participants were representatives of the development sector in Ireland (Concern, Trócaire), members of the German delegation, academics and human rights experts, Irish and German diplomats and policy makers, moderated by Professor Michael O’Flaherty, Director of The Irish Centre of Human Rights at NUI Galway. Speaking on the Round Table Discussion, Professor Michael O'Flaherty, Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at NUI Galway, said: "It is a very important initiative of President Michael D. Higgins and President Joachim Gauck to convene a conversation on Human Rights and Development. Enormously significant decisions will be taken by the international community in September when it adopts the Sustainable Development Goals.  It is imperative that Human Rights are strongly presented in these goals and our discussion will contribute to strengthening the policy of European states on this critical issue." About President Gauck In 2012, Joachim Gauck became the 11th President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Since then he has been tireless in propounding public ethics and a civic space that is grounded in a belief in inviolable human dignity – a society that, above all else that values freedom. Joachim Gauck was born in Rostock in 1940. After gaining his Abitur, the higher education entrance qualification, he studied theology. From 1965 to 1990 he was in the service of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Mecklenburg, working as a pastor for many years. Joachim Gauck became involved in the opposition in the GDR at an early age. In 1989 he was one of the founders of the New Forum and became its spokesperson in Rostock. He was among the initiators of the church and popular resistance to the communist regime in the GDR and led the weekly prayers for peace which gave rise to the protest demonstrations. In March 1990, Joachim Gauck entered the first freely elected GDR parliament as a member of the Alliance 90 – an amalgamation of several grassroots movements – and was elected chairman of the special committee overseeing the dissolution of the Ministry of State Security. On 3 October 1990, he was appointed Special Commissioner of the Federal Government for the files of the State Security Service relating to individuals by the Federal President on the recommendation of the Federal Government. From 1991 to 2000 he was the Federal Commissioner for the Files of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic. From 2001 to 2004, Joachim Gauck was the German member of the Management Board of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia in Vienna. In 2003, he became the Chairman of the Association “Gegen Vergessen – Für Demokratie” (Against Oblivion – For Democracy). He has been awarded numerous honours and prizes for his work, including the Theodor Heuss Medal, the Geschwister Scholl Prize, the European Human Rights Prize and the Ludwig Börne Prize. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rostock, Jena and Augsburg. At the honorary conferring University President Dr Jim Browne in his remarks referred to President Gauck’s call on all moderate forces around the continent to speak up in the current European debate ahead of this State Visit. “Here we are today in Galway - a University city on the edge of Europe a city of creativity and of welcome, home to artists and academics. Our city and our University have been immeasurably enriched by our place in Europe and the vision which has shaped Ireland’s development over the past 5 decades or so.   We cannot let the discourse on Europe’s future be dominated by extremism.     We must remember the Monnet vision of the middle of the last century: a vision which helped to bind up the wounds of the most bloodstained continent in modern history and transform Europe into a place of peace, prosperity and democracy governed by common policies and shared structures.” Dr Browne paid tribute to President Gauck by saying his own personal journey served as an example to many Europeans. Throughout your lifetime you have stood as a champion of democracy and human rights and you remain a voice which can shape the conscience of Europe. The conferring ceremony will be streamed live online from 11.30am at http://www.nuigalway.ie/germanstatevisit/ ENDS

NUI Galway has issued a final call for applications to its Elite Athlete Sports Scholarships Scheme for 2015/16. The University has a long tradition of excellence in sport and this has been enhanced by the recent success in Rowing, Hurling, Basketball, Soccer, Rugby and Archery as well as numerous individual achievements. The deadline for application for current and prospective students is Friday, 31 July at 5pm. The scholarship programme is aimed at student-athletes of outstanding calibre who register as students of the University. Kathy Hynes, Acting Head of Sport at NUI Galway, said “The University is proud to support the next generation of sporting stars. We recognise the huge commitment made by our young athletes in balancing their academic studies and their elite training schedules. NUI Galway through the Elite Scholarship programme provides supports to those athletes who have podium dreams and thus the best possible chance of fulfilling their potential in the sporting and academic context.”  NUI Galway has had an outstanding record in supporting young athletes in developing their sporting and academic careers with in recent years, scholarship athletes winning senior All-Ireland GAA titles, winning and competing at World Championship level in their chosen sport and dozens of NUI Galway students representing their country and a number who have gone on to professional careers in a number of sports. These scholarship students include: Ryan Dervan, Intermediate All-Ireland Boxing Champion 2014; Lisa Casserly and Jenny Byrne, Republic of Ireland Women’s Soccer Squad; Darren Wallace, Irish National Archery Squad 2015 World Cup and European Grand Prix Qualifier. NUI Galway Gaelic Games students are also represented across the counties senior panels, including Cathal Mannion and John Hansbury.   Applicants for Elite sports scholarships must satisfy the academic criteria for entry to NUI Galway and must have applied to the CAO in the usual manner or be a currently enrolled student at NUI Galway. For the scholarships, students who meet the University’s entry requirements will be selected on merit by an independent panel. In addition to the scholarship, students will receive specialist support including Strength and Conditioning, Performance Nutrition, Performance planning and mentoring and Medical and Physiotherapy support. More details on the Sports Scholarship Scheme at http://www.nuigalway.ie/sports/scholarships_info.html. All applications must be submitted online at http://www.sports.nuigalway.ie/scholarshipform.html. -Ends-

NUI Galway graduates Dr Shane Browne and Dr Michael Monaghan have both been awarded the European Society for Biomaterials-European Doctoral Award for their research in biomaterials. The award is given annually by the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) and confers added value to the doctoral degrees of the recipients. The award serves to recognise a European or international dimension of the researchers’ work. Both Dr Browne and Dr Monaghan qualified for the award by fulfilling a number of requirements, including studying abroad during their doctoral research, publishing in high-impact scientific journals and presenting at international conferences. The awards also acknowledge Professor Abhay Pandit, supervisor to both researchers during their PhDs and Director of CÚRAM, the Centre for Research in Medical Devices, proving the integration of this group’s research at an international level. “I would like to congratulate Shane and Michael on their success and achievements”, said NUI Galway’s Professor Pandit. “They are the third and fourth researchers from the team to receive this award, which speaks to the high calibre of professionals we have developed in the biomaterials sector.” CÚRAM’s core research competencies include cell manufacture, drug delivery and biomaterials. Dr Browne’s research involved the tempering of inflammation and the formation of new blood vessels using a collagen-based biomaterial system. Dr Monaghan’s research focused on the development of microRNA-mediated gene silencing delivery methods, for application in modulating extracellular matrix remodeling, which can help protect and repair internal organs after injury. Both research projects were funded through Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland. Dr Browne is now working as an Irish Research Council postdoctoral researcher in Professor Kevin Healy’s laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, on the development of strategies to deliver pro-angiogenic progenitor cells to ischemic tissue using hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels. Dr Monaghan is currently a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Professor Katja Schenke-Layland’s laboratory at the Department of Cell and Tissue Engineering, in the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB. His current research involves studying the formation of cardiomyocytes from fibroblasts using small molecules and exogenous microRNAs. CÚRAM is a national research centre advancing R&D in the medical device sector. Supported by Science Foundation Ireland and industry partners, CÚRAM enhances Ireland’s standing as a major hub for the global medical devices industry. -Ends-

Applications are currently being accepted for NUI Galway’s Taught Masters Scholarship Scheme. The scholarships are valued at €1,500 per student and are awarded to all students undertaking a full-time Taught Masters Programme who have a first-class honours degree. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday, 7 August at 5pm. Valerie Leahy, Postgraduate Officer at NUI Galway, said: “At NUI Galway we are committed to supporting students who want to enhance their skills and employment prospects, and these scholarships are designed to reward and encourage the most committed and brightest students to progress to postgraduate study.” NUI Galway offer over 150 taught postgraduate programmes across all disciplines. The University has a global reputation in the fields of Biomedical Science and Engineering; Human Rights, Applied Social Science and Public Policy; Energy, Environment and Marine Research; Data Analytics, Physical and Computational Sciences; and Digital Humanities, and offer specific postgraduate programmes in these areas. Over 10% of NUI Galway postgraduate courses are taught fully online or via blended learning, so especially suit those who are working full or part-time and want to up-skill and enhance their career prospects. The University also continues to lead the way in terms of graduate employment with 92% of postgraduates employed or in further study after graduating, versus the national average of 87%. Information on the Taught Masters Scholarship Scheme is available at www.nuigalway.ie/postgraduate/scholarships. For more information on postgraduate opportunities at NUI Galway visit www.nuigalway.ie/whynuigalwaypostgrad/ , or contact the Postgraduate Recruitment Office at 091 495184 or postgrad@nuigalway.ie. -Ends- 

International team led by Irish astronomer says that brown dwarfs behave more like planets than stars Brown dwarfs are the mysterious middle children of celestial objects. These relatively cool, dim bodies are difficult to detect, and have remained hard to classify. They are too massive to be planets, yet possess some planet-like characteristics; they are too small to sustain hydrogen fusion reactions at their cores, a defining characteristic of stars, yet they have star-like attributes. Now, by observing a brown dwarf 20 light-years away using both radio and optical telescopes, a team led by Dr Gregg Hallinan, NUI Galway astronomy PhD graduate and now assistant professor of astronomy at Caltech, has found another feature that makes these so-called failed stars more like supersized planets - they host powerful auroras near their magnetic poles. The findings were co-authored by scientists around the world, including many Irish-trained astronomers and Dr Ray Butler a lecturer in the School of Physics at NUI Galway, and appear in the July 30 issue of the journal Nature. “We're finding that brown dwarfs are not like small stars in terms of their magnetic activity; they're like giant planets with hugely powerful auroras,” says Hallinan. “If you were able to stand on the surface of the brown dwarf we observed - something you could never do because of its extremely hot temperatures and crushing surface gravity - you would sometimes be treated to a fantastic light show courtesy of auroras hundreds of thousands of times more powerful than any detected in our solar system.” In the early 2000s, astronomers began finding that brown dwarfs emit radio waves. At first, everyone assumed that the brown dwarfs were creating the radio waves in basically the same way that stars do - through the action of an extremely hot atmosphere, or corona, heated by magnetic activity near the object’s surface. But brown dwarfs do not generate large flares and charged-particle emissions in the way that our sun and other stars do, so the radio emissions were surprising. While studying for his PhD at NUI Galway, in 2006, Hallinan discovered that brown dwarfs can actually pulse at radio frequencies. “We see a similar pulsing phenomenon from planets in our solar system,” says Hallinan, “and that radio emission is actually due to auroras”. Since then he has wondered if the radio emissions seen on brown dwarfs might be caused by auroras. Auroral displays result when charged particles, carried by the stellar wind for example, manage to enter a planet’s magnetosphere, the region where such charged particles are influenced by the planet’s magnetic field. Once within the magnetosphere, those particles get accelerated along the planet's magnetic field lines to the planet’s poles, where they collide with gas atoms in the atmosphere and produce the bright emissions associated with auroras. Following his hunch, Hallinan and his colleagues recently conducted an extensive observation campaign of a brown dwarf called LSRJ 1835+3259, using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the most powerful radio telescope in the world, as well as giant optical instruments that included Palomar’s Hale Telescope in California and the W. M. Keck Observatory's telescopes in Hawaii. Using the VLA, they detected a bright pulse of radio waves that appeared as the brown dwarf rotated around. The object rotates every 2.84 hours, so the researchers were able to watch nearly three full rotations over the course of a single night. Next, the astronomers used the Hale Telescope to observe that the brown dwarf varied optically on the same period as the radio pulses. Focusing on one of the spectral lines associated with excited hydrogen - the H-alpha emission line - they found that the object's brightness varied periodically. Finally, Hallinan and his colleagues used the Keck telescopes to precisely measure the brightness of the brown dwarf over time—no simple feat given that these objects are intrinsically extremely faint, many thousands of times less luminous than our own sun. Hallinan and his team were able to establish that this hydrogen emission is a signature of auroras near the surface of the brown dwarf. “As the electrons spiral down toward the atmosphere, they produce radio emissions, and then when they hit the atmosphere, they excite hydrogen in a process that occurs at Earth and other planets, albeit tens of thousands of times more intense”, explains Hallinan. “We now know that this kind of auroral behavior is extending all the way from planets up to brown dwarfs.” In the case of brown dwarfs, charged particles cannot be driven into their magnetosphere by a stellar wind, as there is no stellar wind to do so. Hallinan says that some other source, such as an orbiting planet moving through the brown dwarf’s magnetosphere, may be generating a current and producing the auroras. “But until we map the aurora accurately, we won't be able to say where it's coming from”, he says. He notes that brown dwarfs offer a convenient stepping stone to studying exoplanets, planets orbiting stars other than our own sun. “For the coolest brown dwarfs we've discovered, their atmosphere is pretty similar to what we would expect for many exoplanets, and you can actually look at a brown dwarf and study its atmosphere without having a star nearby that's a factor of a million times brighter obscuring your observations,” says Hallinan. The work, ‘Magnetospherically driven optical and radio aurorae at the end of the main sequence’, was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation in the US. In all, five of the authors are connected with NUI Galway. Ray Butler is a lecturer in the School of Physics; Aaron Golden is on extended leave from his lecturer position in the School of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics; Leon Harding did his PhD under the joint supervision of Drs Butler and Golden; and Stephen Bourke and the lead author Gregg Hallinan both did their PhDs under Dr Golden. NUI Galway’s Ray Butler adds: “The key roles played by so many Irish-trained astronomers, in making the discoveries to produce this Nature publication, demonstrate that we have the skills and ideas to compete with the world’s best in this field. For example, I worked on planning the spectroscopy observations, and developing the methods to analyse them in order to extract the subtle signature of the brown dwarf’s rotation. The selection of this particular brown dwarf followed work by our co-author Leon Harding during his time as my PhD student, when he used GUFI (the Galway Ultra Fast Imager), an instrument that we built ourselves, to observe its optical variability with unprecedented accuracy. Today’s major breakthrough and the successes of Irish astronomers abroad underline the compelling arguments for the government to reintroduce policies to fund this kind of basic research here in Ireland.” -ends-