Third Level Placements Awarded to Future Business Leaders Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD has awarded third level summer placements to the winners of the BT Business of Science & Technology Programme 2010. The individual winner is Katie O Neill from Dominican College, Wicklow, Hannah Hayes, and Zubair Masod, Julianne O Connell, Seán Ó Rua, Andrej Pacher and Ben Rodgers of the DNA Tracer group won the overall group award. All participating students have received a certificate of achievement. The third level summer placements are organised and funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and comprise of a one week placement divided between NUI Galway and the University of Limerick and a weeklong placement with University College Dublin. The placements are scheduled for June 2010. The students will be accommodated on campus and given the opportunity to work with some of Ireland's leading scientists and researchers. While the programmes will be tailored to meet their individual interests, they will also be exposed to all branches of science. In addition, the universities have extensive social programmes for the winners. Dr Mark Foley, Vice-Dean for Communication and Strategy in the College of Science and Lecturer in the School of Physics at NUI Galway, remarks: "We were delighted to hear that our joint NUI Galway- UL bid to host the BT Young Scientist winners was successful. This award will allow the winners to participate in our Science Experience Workshop from the 24– 25 June 2010. The students will have a unique opportunity to experience life on campus while learning about Science and interacting with students, staff and their peers from across Ireland. This engaging programme will allow students to delve into a wide range of scientific disciplines and explore future career opportunities. Students will participate in hands-on activities and experience working in world class research facilities and institutes. Throughout the programme, attendees will have the opportunity to shadow scientists and gain an invaluable insight into a wide range of scientific disciplines". 2010 was the inaugural year of this pioneering business mentoring programme by BT, which culminated in 53 students presenting real-world case studies to a panel of judges from organisations including Microsoft, Enterprise Ireland and Engineers Ireland. Over the course of the programme the participating students have been trained by technology industry executive, Wendy Kennedy, and mentored by leading Irish business executives from organisations such as Bank of Ireland, Bombardier Aerospace, Bord Gáis Éireann, IBM and Intel. Chris Clark, CEO, BT, "We are proud to have worked with such inspirational and progressive leaders in designing and executing the BT Business of Science & Technology programme. Through close collaboration with the mentors and our partners we have produced a programme which, I am confident, has ignited entrepreneurial thinking in our younger generation. " "I would like to thank all the mentors, judges, facilitators, BT volunteers and trainer for making the programme such a great success. I would also like to thank Minister Batt O'Keefe and the HEA for providing these fantastic third level summer placements. I feel the students will benefit greatly from this experience and hopefully inspire their peers to take part in the 2011 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition," he added. The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD, said: "The BT Business of Science & Technology programme will inspire students' creativity in business and reinforce the link between education and entrepreneurship. "The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition promotes scientific and technological endeavour among our young people. So it is fitting that, in an age of greater Government-backed collaboration between higher education institutions, BT, the Higher Education Authority and the universities provide experience and practical avenues for our young leaders in science and technology to develop their ideas. "I am pleased this year to be in a position to provide placements in higher education institutions because enhanced interaction between business, higher education and second-level education is essential in meeting the ambitious economic and social development goals that we now set ourselves." Michael Kelly, Chairman, HEA, said "I would like to acknowledge the great contribution that BT has made to these students' education. We feel our strategic objectives, in terms of the promotion of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects in schools, are very much aligned with BT and we hope we can continue to work with BT to turn these objectives into reality. The third level summer placements have been designed to maximize the learning experience of these students and following this fantastic opportunity we feel that the winners will be well equipped to enter the business world.' The BT Business of Science & Technology is an additional dimension to the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. 53 students from 13 counties were invited to take part in the programme as they were the winners of the intermediate and senior categories, the overall top four performers and the winners of merit. The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is open for entries from September 2010. For more information please visit http://www.btyoungscientist.ie. -Ends-

Recovery boost as Tánaiste announces €56 million research investment for 180 companies in nine transformational Competence Centres Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Mary Coughlan T.D. today (10 March, 2010), provided a welcome €56m boost to companies determined to succeed and grow in the Smart Economy. Conceived by her Department as part of the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, the Competence Centres are being delivered jointly by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. Clusters of companies will work together to overcome common research challenges and drive opportunities for innovation, growth and jobs. The Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Biorefining will be based in NUI Galway, and co-hosted by UL and UCD. Bioenergy is energy that is latent in plants and the Competence Centre for Bioenergy & Biorefining researchers will focus on ways to convert that energy into useful forms like heat, energy and fuels for transport. According to John Travers of AER Ltd., one of the Irish SMEs involved in the Bioenergy and Biorefinery Centre: "The value of international markets for bioenergy and biorefining is €40 billion and that's growing at 12% each year". There is an opportunity for Ireland to leverage its natural resources as according to Travers, we have some of the highest yields of grass in the world and we have prolific growth of algae and both of these are sustainable raw materials for producing the next generation of bioenergy and biorefining products. Launching the Competence Centres the Tánaiste said: "Today we are marking a departure from the traditional approach to R&D in favour of a collaborative system where companies that might ordinarily be competitors agree to share knowledge, risk and the rewards of pooling their research resources. The Competence Centres initiative offers Ireland the opportunity to excel in nine key sectors. These industry-led centres will convert the research undertaken into new products and services, leading to growth in export markets and jobs in Ireland". There will be 180 SMEs and multinational companies involved in nine centres, five of which are now established. Those established cover Bioenergy & Biorefining, IT Innovation, Applied Nanotechnology, Composite Materials and Microelectronics. Four more – Manufacturing Productivity, Energy Efficiency, Financial Services and E-learning - are at different stages of completion. Each centre will be based in a University with support from partner Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) to deliver on the research needs of the companies. Enterprise Ireland has already ring-fenced €32 million in funding for the initial five centres and it anticipates investing a further €24 million over the next five years across the nine centres. Frank Ryan, CEO Enterprise Ireland said: "These centres are a radical step in enabling companies in Ireland to achieve the kind of transformational change that is required to re-boot our economy. We have chosen an industry-led Competence Centre model in partnership with IDA Ireland, as it is regarded as the most sophisticated R&D vehicle that currently exists internationally. The centres will dramatically increase the amount of intellectual property available to Irish companies that they might otherwise never get access to". Speaking about the benefits of participation to the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies that are involved, Barry O'Leary, CEO IDA Ireland said: "Companies like Intel, Xilinx, Pfizer and Microsoft are engaged in these Competence Centres so they can access the collective expertise of Ireland's top Universities and work with Irish SMEs in partnership. This sort of collaboration is charting the direction of Ireland's Smart Economy and is a hugely welcome development amongst the FDI community here that rely so heavily on the generation of new products and services from research". There are currently six Universities involved: NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, UCD, UL, TCD (CRANN) and UCC (Tyndall) and more HEIs are expected to join. One of the key benefits to the HEIs involved is that they get access to industry and the real problems that they are facing. This will assist the HEIs to align their research agendas with what industry is looking for. The Competence Centres are expected to generate real impacts within five years including: Actively collaborating with a community of over 180 companies; Transferring at least 80 pieces of commercially viable intellectual property in the form of technology licences; Over 60 engineers and scientists directly employed in the centres working on industrially relevant research; A further 60-80 industry personnel working on centre research projects, maintaining the centre's market focus and driving a culture of innovation; Greater levels of R&D activity in Irish companies and overseas companies based in Ireland. -Ends-

CAO Preferences for NUI Galway up 7.1% Figures released by the Central Applications Office (CAO) today show another dramatic rise in demand for places at NUI Galway. First preference applications for undergraduate degrees at NUI Galway are up over 7% on last year, reflecting a substantial rise of more than 15% since 2008. With demand for places so high, NUI Galway will hold a Spring Open Day on Saturday, 24 April, for prospective students and their parents. Almost 3,000 people attended the event last year, which is designed to give a real insight in to university life and career options. Caroline Loughnane, Director of Marketing and Communications at NUI Galway, commented on the rising demand to study at the University: "We are seeing a phenomenal demand for places at NUI Galway. This is driven in part by the 20 new undergraduate courses which we have brought on stream over the last three years. There are also a range of new sports, arts and academic facilities on our state-of-the art campus. Another critical factor in attracting applicants is the University's commitment to providing our students with a learning experience that has relevance for the real world". Newer courses at NUI Galway include the extremely popular Energy Engineering, which was developed in direct response to calls from the energy sector for more energy engineers with the right combination of skills. Also popular is the new Engineering Innovation degree, combining traditional electronic engineering with business and entrepreneurship. The University also offers a Sports and Exercise Engineering degree, which is the first of its kind available in Ireland. NUI Galway has now brought eight BA Connect degrees on-stream, in a radical departure from traditional Arts degrees. These four-year degrees are designed to increase the employability of graduates by developing distinctive skills and creating connections with life beyond the campus. This year, a new BA Connect degree with Latin American Studies is also listed on the CAO form, alongside the existing BA Connect programmes with either Children s Studies, Creative Writing, Film Studies, Human Rights, Irish Studies, Women s Studies or Theatre and Performance. At present, NUI Galway is the only Irish university offering a denominated degree in marine science and it now has the highest concentration of marine scientists of any institution in Ireland. This degree also offers training on board national training vessels in the third year of study. NUI Galway is also offering the first Podiatry degree in Ireland, which will train healthcare professionals who specialises in the medicine of the foot and leg. For further details on the upcoming Open Day visit http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/open-days/. -Ends-

NUI Galway will mark International Women's Day on Friday, 12 March with a public talk by Professor Nira Yuval-Davis, Director of the Research Centre on Migration, Refugees and Belonging, at the University of East London. The free talk takes place at 2.30pm in Áras Moyola, NUI Galway and is followed by a reception. An expert in gender, nationalism, racism and identity Professor Yuval-Davis's talk is called 'Intersectionality in Transversal Politics'. According to Dr Nata Duvvury, Co-Director of Global Women s Studies at NUI Galway: "International Women s Day celebrates the economic, political and social achievements of women - past, present and future. It is important that we mark this important global occasion". Professor Yuval-Davis's talk will prove of interest to anyone working or studying in the areas of nationalism, gender, multiculturalism, racism and identity issues. As March is Women's History Month, NUI Galway's Global Women's Studies Programme and the Gender Research Cluster in the University's School of Political Science and Sociology, has organised two further free public talks. On 18 March, at 6pm, the guest speaker will be Professor Naila Kabeer, Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies Sussex. Professor Kabeer is one of the world's leading feminist economists and her discussion will focus on 'Marriage, Motherhood and Masculinity in the Global Economy: Reconfigurations of Social and Economic Life'. On 14 April, at 6pm, Professor Naomi Goldenberg of the University of Ottawa, Canada, will speak about 'Gender and the Vestigial State of Religion'. A professor of Classics and Religious Studies, Professor Goldenberg is the author of the seminal work, The Changing of the Gods (1979). For further information visit www.nuigalway.ie/wsc/ or contact Gillian Browne on 091 49 3450 or wsc@nuigalway.ie. -ends-

NUI Galway 1-17 Waterford IT 1–16 (After extra- time) NUI Galway hurlers ended a 30 year wait this weekend for the return of the Fitzgibbon Cup after a sensational win against WIT in extra-time in Pearse Stadium. Hosting the event, NUI Galway battled hard to beat the Waterford side by a single point in their second extra-time in two days. The winning point by Clare hurler John Conlon in the 82nd minute secured the long awaited win for the local side. Friday's semi-final clash against Limerick IT, which was held in Dangan, saw the Galway students dig deep to overturn the favourites in a dramatic finish which also went to extra-time with a scoreline of 1-24 to 1-23. John Lee, Galway hurler and final medicine student at NUI Galway was particularly thrilled with the win having fought for six years to get his hands on the Fitzgibbon Cup. "I've been here for six years trying to win it, lost three semi-finals before this and one final. We were nine points down at one stage today and it looked impossible to get back. I was struggling myself to get into it but some of the lads showed unbelievable character. That's the thing about this team and they've shown it all year. "I'm delighted for selector and former head of Sport, Tony Regan as well, that was a big incentive for us today to win it, and he's given so much to hurling at NUI Galway. Whenever you go into the NUI Galway Sports Centre he'd make you read the plaque listing past NUI Galway winning teams with the likes of Joe Connolly and Conor Hayes. It's great Tony now finally has a reason to put us on it. After more than 30 years involved, this is his retirement present". -Ends-