About Us

In Brief

INSPIRE Introduction

INSPIRE (formally known as NANOTEIRE) is a consortium of all Irish third level institutions with international leading research capability in nanoscience and nanotechnology. INSPIRE was recently funded to the level of €31.6M by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) via PRTLI4. This was the largest funding allocation to a national consortium.

INSPIRE Mission

INSPIRE exists to foster, facilitate and ultimately ensure collaboration and partnership between top ranking Irish and international scientists and engineers in nanoscience research and education. INSPIRE will enable Ireland to join an elite group of the highest ranking nanoscience countries worldwide making it an increasingly attractive location for relevant indigenous and foreign investment

INSPIRE Vision

INSPIRE is a collaborative framework that will establish Ireland as an internationally-recognised centre of excellence in nanoscience research and graduate education. It will provide shared access to advanced instrumentation, graduate courses and new strategic research partnerships. It will be the focal point of all nanoscience activity in Ireland.

INSPIRE Members:

  • CRANN / Trinity Collage Dublin (TCD),
  • MSSI / University of Limerick (UL),
  • Tyndall National Institute / University College Cork (UCC),
  • FOCAS Institute / Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT),
  • NCPST and RINCE/ Dublin City University (DCU),
  • LightHOUSE / National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG),
  • Cork Institute of Technology (CIT),
  • CNBI, University College, Dublin (UCD).

Ancillary Partners:

  • University of Ulster (UU)
  • Queens University, Belfast (QUB)

 

Locations map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INSPIRE's aims are:

  • Creation of a shared national infrastructural capability serviced effectively by trained support staff to enhance the national capacity for delivering innovative research in nanoscience and nanoscale technologies.
  • Development of shared national nanoscience graduate programmes with international appeal resulting in graduate numbers aligned with stated SSTI goals.
  • Expansion of existing institutional linkages to facilitate new collaborations, locally, regionally and nationally across institutions and disciplines.

The three key research domains in INSPIRE are:

  1. Nanoelectronics
  2. Nanophotonics
  3. Bionanoscience


In each domain there already exists among the partners research excellence, collaboration across institutions, international research leadership and value-added relationships with industry.

In addition, these domains and the connections between them have been identified strategically and are structured to allow Nanoscience nationally to play an increasing role in other National programmes e.g. the Biomedical Sciences Network and Biopharma.

Underpinning these key domains is fundamental cross-cutting research in Nanomaterials Synthesis and Characterisation. This cross-cutting capability is a vital enabler for all three key domains as well as potential emerging collaborations in other areas of the EU FP7.

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