20120214044327_rcsi research strategy (2009-2

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RCSI Research Strategy 2009 – 2014

Translational Research

RCSI’s Noble Purpose

Buil ding on our heri tage in surgery, we wil l enhance human health through endeavour ,innovation and coll aboration in education, research and service

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) incorporates the Schools of Medicine,

Physiotherapy, Pharmacy and Nursing. The RCSI Research Institute specializes in

Translational Health and Medical Research linking clinicians and scientists between its city

centre campus and its Education and Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital. The RCSI has

played a leadership role in Irish surgical and medical education and research since the

College’s inception in 1784.

The Medical School dates from the 19th century with various postgraduate faculties

added in the 20th century. More recently the College has become active in leading national

agenda in medical research and education. The College is a truly international institution in

the provision of medical and surgical education, research, training and hospital and health

care management in Africa, and the Middle and Far East. Today more than 60 countries are

represented on its international student body and the RCSI also has a strong international

presence with Medical Schools in both Malaysia and Bahrain. The Royal College of Surgeons

in Ireland is independent, international and progressive - a unique medical institution.



________________________________________________________________________________________Prtli5 Volume 1b – RCSI Research Strategy

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

RCSI Strategic Plan 2009-2014: Executive Summary

1. Promotion of Translational Research1.1 Mission statement of the RCSI Research Institute in Translational Health and

Medicine

Page 5

1.2 Evolution of the RCSI Research Institute Page 51.3 Development and Sustainability of Translational Research (2009-2014) Page 81.4 Alignment with existing national activities and with future regional and/ornational goals and objectives

Page 9

1.5 Rising to the challenge of Translational Health and Medicine Page 10

2. Creating a Translational Research Infrastructure Page 122.1 The development of a Translational Hub in the Greater North Dublin Region Page 122.2 Filling Gaps in the Translational & Disease Research Infrastructure – The National Biophotonics and Imaging Platform Ireland

Page 14

3. RCSI Research Institute - Management, Structure and Strategy Page 17

3.1 Management Structure Page 173.2 Research Funding Page 183.3 Disease Research Clusters Page 193.4 Clinical Research Centre Page 203.5 The Colles Institute Page 21

4. Fostering Population and International Health Research at RCSI: 2009-14 Page 23

4.1 Irish research focus Page 234.2 Developing country research focus Page 234.3 Research partnerships Page 24

5. Strengthening of RCSI’s Research Management and Support –

The Research Office

Page 25

6. Knowledge Transfer Strategy (2009 – 2014) Page 27

6.1 Commercialization Strategy Page 286.2 IP Training/Awareness Strategy Page 296.3 Institutional Support for TT Office and IP Page 296.4 Management Structure of Technology Transfer Function Page 306.5 Commercialisation Committee (PCC) Page 306.6 Outreach Page 31

7. The School of Postgraduate Studies Strategy (2007 – 2012) Page 36

7.1 Management of the School Page 377.2 Structured PhD Education in RCSI Page 387.3 Funding Postgraduate Education Page 387.4 Meeting National and European Objectives for Postgraduate Education Page 397.5 Co-tutelle PhD Programmes Page 397.6 Postdoctoral Training and Career Development Page 407.7 Future Plans for Structured PhD Education in RCSI Page 40




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The RCSI Strategic Plan for Translational Research 2009 – 2014

Executive Summary

The The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has played a leadership role in Irishsurgical and medical education and research since the foundation of the College in 1784. TheRCSI incorporates the Schools of Medicine, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Nursing, PostgraduateStudies and International Healthcare Management. The RCSI is a private, self-financing, not-for-profit medical and surgical college based in Dublin, Ireland. The RCSI has a global reachin medical education and research through its overseas medical universities and health carecentres in the Middle east, Far East and Africa. The RCSI Research Institute specialises inTranslational Research linking clinicians and scientists between the city centre campus and theEducation and Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital.

The RCSI has achieved a major development of research infrastructure and activity over the past decade which has enhanced the international standing of the College. The RCSI wassuccessful in securing funding under the HEA Programme for Research in Third LevelInstitutions (PRTLI) to develop the Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences (PRTLI Cycle 1),the Biopharmaceutical Sciences Network (Cycle 2) and the Programme for Human Genomics(Cycle 3). These PRTLI Cycles also funded the building and equipping of the new researchcentres in the city centre campus and the Education and Research Centre (ERC) at BeaumontHospital, providing a state-of-the-art infrastructure for translational clinician-scientist research programmes. In 2006, the city centre and hospital research facilities were joined into a singleResearch Institute which all the core technology platforms.

The RCSI‟s research activity has greatly increased over the past 5 years, with annual researchawards growing from €7M in 2004 to €52M in 2007. The quality of RCSI research is well-recognised nationally and internationally with high-impact publications. The SFI researchaward success rate for RCSI researchers is running at twice the average of the universities. TheRCSI Research Institute plays a leadership role nationally through the co-ordination of the National Biophotonics Imaging Platform funded under PRTLI Cycle 4 (€30M) and

internationally through co-ordination of the EU FP7 Marie-Curie Career EnhancementMobility Programme for post-doctoral scientists.

The RCSI Strategic Plan for Research has a single objective to enhance and sustain world-classTranslational Research and Training. The College aspires to this noble purpose through thedevelopment of a Translational Hub across the RCSI Research Institute, the RCSI-associatedhospitals and through key alliances and integration of research infrastructures with the largestnon-medical universities, in the State, DCU and NUIM. This strategy will have a majorinfluence on the College‟s campus development programmes and research collaborations.

Over the period of the current Strategic Plan for Research 2009-2014, the RCSI will aspire to play a leading national and international role in Translational Medicine and Surgical Researchand Training. This goal will be achieved through the development of the Colles Institute forSurgical Research, Training and Development and a Translational Research Hub. The RCSIhas embraced innovative actions to harness the potential for translational research through thedevelopment of an Academic Health Centre (AHC) with Beaumont and Connolly Hospitalsand the co-location of laboratory-based and clinical research centres within the AHC.

The RCSI, in collaboration with Dublin City University, NUI Maynooth and Dundalk IT,




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proposes an innovative programme to build capacity and excellence in translational researchthrough the establishment of a Translational Research Hub (TRH) linked to the AHC andunderpinned by new and established complementary research centres, technology platforms, acommon Graduate Training Programme in Bioanalysis & Therapeutics and biotechnologyinnovation ventures with industry.

The TRH is founded on a solid basis of peer-reviewed ongoing collaborative research programmes between the partners (HRB, SFI, PRTLI4, FP7), between the partners andindustry (incl., Siemens, Analog Devices, Becton Dickinson, GSK) and with EU FP7 partners(incl., CNRS, Inserm France, and CNR Italy). The TRH will have at its core, four new researchcentres; the RCSI Translational Research Centre , the DCU Nano-Bioanalytical ResearchFacility, the NUIM Biosciences Research Centre, and the DkIT Ion Channel BiotechnologyCentre. Through the TRH, these new and existing research laboratories will be linked to theclinical research centres in the RCSI Academic Health Centre and the Children‟s Research

Centre at Crumlin Hospital.

The TRH will deliver quality access for the non-medical partners to the translational researchfacilities and clinical expertise of the RCSI Schools of Medicine, Surgery and Pharmacy, thehospital clinical research centres and the RCSI Colles Institute for Surgical Research, Training& Development. In return, the RCSI will benefit from access to advanced technology platformsand expertise in physics, chemical biology and bio-engineering. Thus, critical mass, economyof scale and excellence in multidisciplinary translational research will be enabled by theintegration of clinical and basic science laboratories with advanced technology cores in




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imaging, nanomedicine, molecular medicine, chemical biology, and bioanalysis. This resourcewill be brought to bear on advancing knowledge of disease mechanisms and the developmentand commercialization of novel therapeutics in Cancer, Neurodegenerative and PsychiatricDisorders, Respiratory and Cardiovascular Diseases.




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1 Promotion of Translational Research

The informing principle of RC SI’s research strategy is the promotion of Translational Healthand Medical Research - “ Bench research informed by bedside problems, translated into

diagnosis and treatment and into the community”.

The Research Strategic Plan informs policy management and development of RCSI ResearchInstitute activities. It informs the formation of Research Clusters in prioritised research themesin disease areas and technology platforms, leadership and internal structure, collaborative partnerships and enables technology transfer and commercialisation of research.

1.1 Mission statement

To support and carry out world-class translational medical research and to integrate basic andclinical research, so that advances in medical science are translated as quickly as possible into patient treatments, diagnostics and therapeutics.- To train postgraduate scientists and clinicians for internationally competitive careers in

basic, clinical and population health research- To acquire and develop advanced technologies to support its translational research programmes.

- To generate novel Intellectual Property and support its commercialisation for the benefit ofthe College and the Nation‟s Health Gain.

- To evaluate and inform population and health services policy and practice, nationally andinternationally

1.2 Evolution of the RCSI Research InstituteThe Institute of Biopharmaceutical Sciences (IBS) at The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland(RCSI) was funded under the Irish Government‟s Programme for Research in Third Level

Institutions (PRTLI) HEA cycle 1. Through further funding in HEA PRTLI Cycles 2 and 3, theInstitute expanded its research programmes and formed collaborations, with major IrishUniversities, to establish the Biopharmaceutical Sciences Network (BSN) and The Programmefor Human Genomics (PHG). The IBS was the lead partner with its sister research institutes atUCD (Conway Institute) and TCD (Institute of Molecular Medicine) in the PHG which is themajor research programme (€44.7M under Cycle 3) of the Dublin Molecular Medicine CentreDMMC.On the Beaumont Hospital campus, the College has developed clinician-scientist research programmes in its Education and Research Centre (ERC). The ERC was built and equippedover the period 1998-2002 through funding from HEA PRTLI, Wellcome Trust and PrivateDonors. The ERC houses the RCSI Clinical Research Centre established under PRTLI Cycles1&3 and the research laboratories of Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Microbiology andMolecular Medicine.In 2005, the RCSI Research Committee approved a plan to join the IBS and ERC into a singleresearch infrastructure with a common governance and administrative support. By 2006, theRCSI Research Institute included the Centre for Human Proteomics and all the researchinfrastructure support facilities of the College in proteomics, bioinformatics, bio-collections,mass-spectrometry, peptide synthesis, transgenic animal resource and imaging platforms.In 2006, the Division of Population Health Sciences was established, comprising thedepartments of Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, General Practice and Psychology.




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The Division, with support from the RCSI Research Institute, has secured several large programme grants for research and doctoral training in national and global population healthresearch, collaborating on the latter with the Department of International Health and TropicalMedicine.Over the period 2009-2014, the College will continue the development of the RCSI ResearchInstitute to encompass its city centre campus and ERC Beaumont Hospital campus to deliveron its translational research strategy in specific Disease Clusters. The Education ResearchCentre and Clinical Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital, housing the Academic ConsultantProfessorial Departments and the Molecular Medicine Laboratories represent a unique site forclinician-scientist-patient oriented research. The ERC will be developed under Phase 2 of its building programme to become the Translational Research Centre with double the researchspace dedicated to translational science and clinical research. The city centre campus will builda new national surgical research and development infrastructure under the Colles Institute forsurgical research and training. The Research Institute will also develop an Academic HealthCentre in translational research, clinical service and training in partnership with the College‟s

leading hospitals (Beaumont Hospital and Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown). The RCSIResearch Institute will build on its strategic alliances with the major non-medical universities(DCU and NUIM) to form a Translational Research Hub in the Greater North Dublin Cityand Region through the sharing and integration of complementary research resources – including shared laboratories, clinical and surgical research centres, technology transfer andadvanced technology platforms. The Translational Research Hub will include associated partners in industry, the ITs (Dundalk and Tallaght) and the Children‟s Research Centre,

Crumlin Hospital. The Translational Research Hub mission is two-fold - to translate basicresearch knowledge into applied diagnostics and therapeutics and to translate this intellectual property into commercialization and improved patient care. The RCSI will continue to developits international standing as a leader in translational research with its major overseas partnerswith whom strong EUFP7 programmes are in place and further build on collaborativeagreements in translational research collaboration signed in 2008 and 2009 with the Frenchnational science council, the CNRS, the French national medical research agency Inserm, andthe University of Massachussetts Medical School . The name of RCSI will be synonymouswith excellence in translational medical research , training and technology transfer.

The RCSI Research Institute has provided the RCSI research infrastructure to deliver theDMMC Programme for Human Genomics PRTLI Cycle 3. During this period, the ResearchInstitute became host to all the major funded research programmes in RCSI. Under PRTLI4,the RCSI co-ordinates the National Biophotonics Imaging Platform, a €30M programme in

research and training in advanced imaging across 6 universities and two Institutes ofTechnology (www.nbipireland.ie) .The College completed the building of the new Research Institute laboratories on York Streetin mid 2006 and began building work on the Surgical Research and Development Institute –

the Colles Institute (see appendix Colles Institute) in York street in Summer 2007 (due forcompletion in early 2010). The RCSI Research Institute aspires to become Ireland‟s premier

Research Institute in Translational Health and Medical Research, encompassing the researchactivities of the main College and Beaumont Hospital ERC sites along with other hospital- based research centres affiliated with RCSI. Over the period of the strategic plan 2009-2014,the Research Institute will provide the infrastructure through a network of labs, coretechnology platforms and staff to facilitate and develop interdisciplinary Clusters in prioritisedareas of research within the College. The research clusters are centred on five disease-specificareas in CANCER - breast and colorectal cancer, neuroblastoma, NEUROLOGICAL -

http://www.nbipireland.ie/





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neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy and behaviour. RESPIRATORY - respiratory cysticfibrosis and asthma, INFLAMMATION & INFECTION - regenerative medicine rheumatoidarthritis and bone remodelling, CARDIOVASCULAR, hypertension, thrombosis and stroke.The rapid growth in Population and International Health research at RCSI, will be supportedand consolidated to enable RCSI to become national and international leaders in niche areas inPOPULATION HEALTH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY.




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1.3 Development and Sustainability of Translational Research (2009 – 2014)

The informing principle of RCSI‟s research strategy is the promotion of Translational Healthand Medical Research - “Bench research informed by bedside problems, translated intodiagnosis and treatment of disease and into the community”. Traditionally, clinical and

scientific research are rarely intertwined and protocols in basic and clinical research have notusually been informed by each other. There are complex obstacles to Translational & DiseaseResearch besides the current funding patterns and lack of clinician-scientist career structureswhich exacerbate the separation of hospital and research labs. The RCSI has identified majorchallenges and opportunities to address in its strategic research plan 2009-2014. Thesechallenges in developing and sustaining translational research are summarised below:

Challenges facing Translational Research

Translation is not straightforward and requires a long-haul commitment.

Translation is hindered by insufficient targeted funding.

Shortage of qualified basic science researchers in the Translational space and practically non-existence of career clinician-scientists.

Academic and hospital appointments and segregated funding culture hinders qualityclinician-scientist collaboration.

Departmental-based research does not favour interdisciplinarity.

Legal and ethical burden.

Opportunities for Translational Research In clearly articulating and debating these obstacles to translation, the RCSI Council, MedicalFaculty, the Research Committee and Senior Management have embraced specificopportunities and innovative actions to harness the potential for translational & diseaseresearch in its laboratory-based research centres, the Clinical Research Centre at BeaumontHospital and in the College‟s allied hospitals. The RCSI will develop this potential through

disease-centred and clinician-scientist research partnerships at national and international levels.Central to its Strategic Plan for Research 2009-2014, the RCSI has appointed Ireland‟s first

Chair in Translational Medicine and expanded the Research Institute to embrace Beaumont andConnolly Hospitals clinical research specialities.In partnership with the Children‟s Research Centre (ChRC) at Crumlin Hospital, RCSI hasembarked on a research programme in childhood cancer genetics and has appointed Ireland‟s

first Chair in Paediatric Cancer Genetics in March 2007.. The Professor of Cancer Genetics is aworld-leader in the area of neuroblastoma and leads an SFI -funded research team at the RCSIand ChRC and has established a core facility in high-throughput genetic screening of childhoodcancers.

Some of the obstacles and opportunities to effective translational & disease research have beenidentified in various government and EU reports with specific recommendations to realiseIreland‟s potential for this research. Although many of these recommendations are laudatory,not all are practical or feasible for Ireland in the short-term of most funding cycles of 3 to 5years. This is so because of the research infrastructure deficits that still exist in the BiomedicalLife Sciences space and the dearth of career paths for clinician-scientists. For these reasons, theRCSI will focus on practical actions in its Strategic Plan for Research 2009-2014 to build thefoundations for Translational Health and Medicine Research. The College is committed to thelong-haul in targeting its research activities, infrastructure and funding resources specifically




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into Translational Medicine over several decades and well beyond the current NationalDevelopment Plan (NDP2 2008-2013).

1.4 Alignment with existing national activities and with future regional and/or national

goals and objectives

The development of Ireland as one of the most competitive knowledge based societies andeconomies in the world underpins Government policy statements and strategies as mostrecently outlined in “ Building Ireland’s Smart Economy 2009” and earlier in the Strategy forScience, Technology and Innovation (SSTI) and the National Development Programme (NDP).RCSI is a significant contributor to the development of the knowledge society in Irelandthrough its national and international education and research activities. Under the RCSITranslational Research Centre outlined in this proposal, the RCSI intends to double the size ofits translational research laboratories at Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals and link thesefacilities into a Translational Research Hub (TRH) with DCU and NUIM over the period 2010-2014. This will significantly enhance national capacity for knowledge transfer anddevelopment The window of opportunity is limited and Ireland needs to act quickly in order to

maximise the potential opportunity in the translational research field . The RCSI-DCU-NUIMTranslational Research Hub will have strong foundations in academia and industry partnerships and the health services, and will act as a magnet to the pharmaceutical andmedical devices industry, nationally and internationally.

Responding to the National Agenda in Translational Research

The RCSI will promote Translational Research through the development of an AcademicHealth Centre of Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals linked to a new Translational ResearchCentre within the RCSI Research Institute. The training of clinican-scientists to PhD levelthrough joint Consultant-Scientist supervised research programmes is central to RCSI strategyin developing a new generation of clinician scientists in Translational Medicine. The RCSIResearch Institute will develop a Translational Research Hub in collaboration with itsAcademic Health Centre and partner Universities.

The development of Ireland as one of the most competitive knowledge based societies andeconomies in the world underpins Government policy statements and strategies as mostrecently outlined in “ Building Ireland’s Smart Economy 2009” and earlier in the Strategy forScience, Technology and Innovation (SSTI) and the National Development Programme (NDP).The RCSI is a significant contributor to the development of the knowledge society in Irelandthrough its national and international education and research activities. Under the RCSITranslational Research Centre outlined, the RCSI will double the size of its translationalresearch laboratories at Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals. Since 2007, the RCSI with DCUand NUI Maynooth has engaged in a planning process to establish a Translational Research

Hub (TRH) to integrate basic and clinical science research centres and technology platformsacross the three institutions over the period 2010-2014. This will significantly enhance nationalcapacity and coherence for knowledge transfer and development in diagnostics andtherapeutics. The window of opportunity is limited and Ireland needs to act quickly in order to

maximise the potential opportunity in the translational research field . The RCSI-DCU-NUIMTranslational Research Hub will have strong foundations in academia and industry partnerships and the health services, and will act as a magnet to the pharmaceutical andmedical devices industry, nationally and internationally.




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1.5 R ising to the challenge of Translational Health and Medicine

Key appointments at RCSIThe time for aspiration and visionary statements is over and the RCSI Strategic Plan 2009-2014 has already actioned the appointment of key personnel in Translational and DiseaseMedicine ahead of PRTLI5. The College prioritised clinician-scientist led research teamssolely for inclusion in its participation in the successfully funded PRTLI4 MMI Network andthe National Biophotonics Imaging Platform consortium. The College will continue to prioritise disease-specific research among clinician-scientist led research teams in the PRTLI5and EU FP7 programmes.

The Research Strategy will allow for the targeted appointments into Disease Clusters tostrengthen these areas with critical mass & high-calibre internationally competitive scientistsand clinician scientists.

To grow and sustain RCSI‟s Translational Research capability, key research appointments at professorial and lecturer level have been approved by the RCSI Council which include:

Research Professor in Translational Medicine

The RCSI appointed Ireland‟s first Chair in Translational Medicine in 2008. The Professor ofTranslational Medicine will have 8 protected sessions for research and 3 clinical sessions inBeaumont Hospital. The appointee will be of the caliber to lead an SFI or Wellcome Trustfunded research programme in one of the College‟s niche areas of Cardiovascular, Respiratory,

Cancer, Neuroscience medical research. The Professor of Translational Medicine and researchteam will play a leadership role in developing clinical research and promoting clinical trials inthe RCSI Clinical Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital, in developing the biomarkerdiscovery programme in the Centre of Human Proteomics and promoting commercial partnerships with industry.

Research Professor in Cancer GeneticsIn partnership with the National Children‟s Research Centre, the RCSI has embarked on a €5M

research programme in childhood cancer genetics and has appointed Ireland‟s first Chair in

Paediatric Cancer Genetics in March 2007. The Professor of Cancer Genetics is a world-leaderin the area of neuroblastoma and leads an SFI -funded research team at the RCSI and CRC andwill develop a national access facility in high-throughput genetic screening of childhoodcancers.

Research Professor in NeurodegenerationThe RCSI strengthened its Translational Research programmes in Neuroscience (in addition toits current SFI and Wellcome funded three professors in neuroscience) through the

appointment of a clinician-scientist SFI Stokes Research Professor in Neurodegeneration,. Hisresearch focuses on the the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury, cerebral ischemia, andsubarachnoid hemorrhage with special emphasis on cerebral contusions, molecularmechanisms of cytotoxic brain edema, intracellular apoptotic signaling, neurovascular biologyand small animal surgery and imaging.

Research Professor in Cardiovascular Science

The RCSI strengths in cardiovascular research are in thrombosis and stroke. In 2007 and 2009,RCSI strengthened its research activity in platelet cell biology through two SFI Walton awards




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in cardiovascular biology. In 2008, the college appointed a full-time clinician-scientistResearch Professor of Cardiovascular Science in the area of platelet biology who will leadtranslational research in the development and clinical trials of advanced devices anddiagnostics in the early detection of thrombosis.

Biomedical Research LectureshipsTo address the long-term career deficit for young biomedical researchers and to build capacityin basic science underpinning translational and disease research, the RCSI has appointedIreland‟s first Biomedical Research Lecturers. The appointments of the first two researchlectureships were made in March 2007 and a further complement of two appointments weremade in 2008. These appointments are in disease-specific niche research areas of the Collegewith a clinician and scientist acting as the sponsors to oversee the career development of theearly-stage research-lecturer. These posts will carry significant start-up funding over the first 3years. The research lecturer will have protected time for research with no more than 26 hoursyearly direct teaching load in the first three years of appointment. The Biomedical ResearchLectureship will become the major route for appointment in RCSI of tenured early-stageresearchers following their post-doctoral experience. In addition to building capacity of thenext generation of Translational researchers, these posts will strengthen research-led teachingand avoid the dangers inherent in the growing dichotomy in research and teachingcharacteristic of other institutions.

Training of clinician-scientists

The ACSTI report Towards Better Health 2006 highlights the lack of training and careerstructure of clinician scientists as a key challenge in stepping up Translational and Diseaseresearch. No single institution in Ireland can meet this challenge on its own. The RCSI will partner with its sister Medical Schools through the MMI consortium to develop clinician-scientist structured MB PhD training programmes in translational research. In addition, RCSIand TCD have signed a partnership agreement to develop common postgraduate courses inmolecular medicine and translational research.

Research EngineersThe College has paid particular attention to a key recommendation in the HEA infrastructurereview (2007) regarding the lack of dedicated research technical support and career track forsuch essential staff which are uncommon in the HEI sector. The RCSI supports several Corefacilities which it considers essential to underpin Translational and Disease Research. TheCollege has appointed Research Engineers to the Core facilities in Peptide Synthesis, Cell &Molecular Imaging, Small Animal Imaging and Human Ultrasound Imaging

Academic Consultant Translational Research ProfessorshipsThe College will continue its appointment of hospital consultants to joint academic positions at

professorial level in the specific areas it seeks to develop Translational and Disease Research.Two such joint academic-hospital professorial consultant appointments have been made in2007 in the areas of neuroscience (neuroendocrinology) and infectious diseases with furtherappointments planned in cardiovascular pharmacology, gastroenterology, neurology, cancerand respiratory medicine over the period of this strategic plan.




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2 Creating a Translational Research Infrastructure

STI Key recommendation: Develop a number of centres of world significance in

translati onal health research, each of which has strong foundations in both academia and

the health services and which will act as a magnet to the pharmaceutical and medical

devices industry, nationally and internationally. Build these centres through strategic

investment in research inf rastructu re, people and programmes by competiti ve, peer reviewed

awards through the HRB and other funding agencies;

2.1 The development of a Translational Hub in the Greater North Dublin Region

Over the period 2004-2007, the RCSI brought all its research centres and core facilities undera single Translational Research Institute which constitutes Ireland‟s first Research Institute

with a focus on Translational Health and Medicine. The RCSI Research Institute will double itstranslational research laboratory facilities at Beaumont and Connolly Hospitals and link thesefacilities into a single Translational Hub with DCU and NUIM over the period 2009-2014.

The RCSI Council endorsed a Translational Research strategy for PRTLI Cycle 4 and Cycle 5

and other NDP2 and EU FP7 Funding Programmes to establish a Translational Hub in theGreater North Dublin Region. This concept was articulated and acted upon in over periods of previous Institutional Strategic Plan 2002-2008 and developed further in the research strategy2009-2014

Under PRTLI5 and other funding sources such as SFI, EU FP7, the RCSI will develop aTranslational Hub Capital Programme to build a 4,200 sq.m Translational Research Centre(TRC) which will include the Phase 2 build of the Education and Research Centre at BeaumontHospital and new research laboratories at Connolly Hospital to complement the newly builtAsthma Clinical Centre (funded by the HSE and EU). This capital building development will be linked to the new RCSI surgical research and training laboratories (Colles Institute) in York

Street (1,000 sq.m. built from private funds and due for completion Oct 2010) and to theexisting translational research laboratories in the adjoining ERC at Beaumont Hospital (1,200sq.m. completed in 2003 from PRTLI Cycles 2&3 and private funds) and the new RCSIBiomedical Research Institute (3,000 sq.m. completed in 2007 from PRTLI Cycles 3 & 4 and private funds). The RCSI is acutely conscious of the hurdles to translational research in ournon-medical university partners NUIM and DCU through the lack of access to a medicalschool and clinical research centres. Likewise, the RCSI would greatly benefit both in researchand postgraduate training from access to complementary university science facilities,technological and research expertise. The presidents of NUIM, DCU and RCSI have endorseda bold plan to develop a Translational Hub along the corridor of RCSI-ERC, Beaumont andConnolly Hospitals, DCU and NUI Maynooth. The Translational Hub running through the

Greater Dublin Region will develop from an alliance of research building infrastructure,academic health centre, common degree post-graduate programmes, a single graduate schooland shared Translational Technology Labs between the academic partners and industry(chemical biology, bioanalytical medical devices and diagnostics). Our major partners areDCU and NUIM, bringing together, inter alia, the BDI CSET, NICB, NBIP the HamiltonInstitute and private partners from the medical devices industry. Under PRTLI Cycle 5, DCU, NUIM and RCSI will propose complementary new research buildings to include a new DCUBioanalytical Nanomedicine Research Centre (3,500 sq.m), a new NUIM Chemical Biologyand Immunology Research Centre (2,000 sq.m). These new research laboratories together with




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the RCSI ERC Phase 2 building will add an additional 9,200 sq.m. of advanced translationalresearch and development laboratories into the Translational Hub. It is agreed that scientistsfrom the two non-medical universities, DCU and NUIM, working on collaborative programmes with RCSI clinicians and scientist will have allocated laboratory space in theRCSI Translational Research Centre at Beaumont Hospital.

The Translational Hub will bring in associated partners to include new research laboratories atthe Children‟s Research Centre Crumlin Hospital. (800 sq.m) and at Tallaght and Dundalk IT.The Translational Hub of universities, medical school, institutes of technology and hospitalswill be a truly national and international resource in translational research and training, withclose links to cognate research programmes in cancer, immunology and neuroscience at TCD,UCD, UCC, QUB, UUU and to regenerative medicine research programmes at NUI Galway(and post-graduate training programmes in Molecular Medicine Ireland). The TranslationalHub will also be linked into the Dublin Centre for Clinical Research (TCD-UCD-RCSI)through a joint HRB-Wellcome Trust funded programme.

International Translational research programmes which already exist between RCSI and theFrench national science and medical research councils (CNRS INSERM) the Italian sciencecouncil (CNR), the University of Massachussetts Medical School and the NIH Blood Instituteat Wisconsin will be developed as the international arm of Translational Hub in particular toenhance the RCSI co-ordinator role in EU FP7 Health, People and Capacities ProgrammesBiophotonics and Imaging are tools of translational research. In its capacity as co-ordinator ofthe PRTLI4 funded National Biophotonics Imaging Platform (www.nbipireland.ie) , RCSI willlink the Translational Hub with its NBIP partners from the molecular, cell, animal and humanimaging cores in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.

The RCSI Research Institute will promote the participation of the Translational Research Hubin EATRIS (European Advanced Translational Research Infrastructure in Medicine) whichwill first establish a small number of research facilities distributed in Europe, with the task oftranslating basic discoveries into clinical practice. Each node of the network will includecutting-edge technologies for translational and disease research and will cover one of the majordisease fields: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, metabolic syndrome, brain disorders andinfectious disorders.

The development of a Translational Research Hub is a quantum leap for RCSI and delivers onthe STI recommendation to develop translational health centres of world-class significance.The RCSI will engage with its core partners DCU and NUIM and the other medicaluniversities and with industry in developing and sustaining the Translational Hub. Over the period of development of the Translational Hub 2010-2014, the RCSI envisages the progressive transfer of all its translational research activity from its city centre campus on to

the Beaumont Hospital site to establish a Translational Research Centre. In partnership withDCU, NUIM and the Academic Health Centre, the College will create a translational researchand development corridor in the Greater North Dublin region with a strong North-South Axisin this development linking up with Dundalk IT, QUB and UU.




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The TRH will promote a single graduate school n Bioanalytics and Therapeutics with a focuson translational research, development and commericalization of new medical devices,sensors and therapeutics.

2.2 Filling Gaps in the Translational & Disease Research Infrastructure – The National

Biophotonics Imaging Platform Ireland

RCSI Key Funding and Resource Actions to foster Translational Research

The STI council recommends that the required additional investment needed to fill the physical

infrastructure gaps in translational and clinical research including further

clinical/translational research centres in major academic hospitals, bio-banking facilities, a

gene-library and imaging and animal testing facilities be prioritised.

The National Biophotonics Imaging Platform Ireland (NBIP www.nbipireland.ie ) wasestablished under PRTLI Cycle 4 (€30M funding award) and provides an integratedinfrastructure in research, education, technology development and industry collaboration forthe State‟s investment in Biophotonics and Imaging. The NBIP was established by RCSI and

has been in development since December 2004. The Imaging Platform brings together all themajor Biophotonics and Imaging research centres in Irish Universities, Medical Schools andInstitutes of Technology in a single unique Research, Educational and Outreach consortium.

The NBIP includes a network of core facilities in molecular, cellular, animal and humanresearch imaging across 6 Universities (UCC, UL, NUIG, NUIM, DCU), 2 Institutes ofTechnology (Dublin and Dundalk) and the RCSI which also acts as the National co-ordinator.The NBIP has 3 major EU Imaging Platform partners – the CNRS Montpellier, France, Nordforsk Scandinavia and the CNR Naples, Italy.

Major objectives of the NBIP Consortium:

To provide a structured research and training framework for Ireland's investment inadvanced imaging applied to the Life Sciences

To establish Graduate Training Programmes in Biophotonics and Imaging

To bridge the Physical and Life Sciences interface and, through partnership withIndustry, to enhance technology developments in BioPhotonics and Imaging

To provide a national access to Core Facilities in Molecular, Cellular, Animal andHuman Research Imaging.

To develop inter-institutional and international research programmes building on theexpertise of Principal Investigators

To provide a Biophotonics and Imaging infrastructure for Ireland's participation inlarge-scale international research programmes

The NBIP consortium addresses major infrastructural challenges highlighted in recent Forfas,HEA and HRB reports for developing and sustaining world-class research competiveness andcritical mass in Ireland‟s Third-level sector. Specifically, the NBIP bridges the Physical andLife Sciences interface linking cognate research groups in the Mathematical, Physical,Chemical, Computational and Life Sciences to develop new research paradigms and advancedtools in Photonics and Imaging. The interdisciplinary consortium will create numerousopportunities for innovation and commercialisation and through partnership with Industry will







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enhance technology developments in Biophotonics and Molecular Imaging. The NBIP has nocompeting national network and represents Ireland‟s node for biophotonics and imaging

research expertise and access to core facilities. Over the past two years, the NBIP partners haveidentified and agreed the location of institutional centres of excellence for the development,access and sustainability of Molecular, Cellular, Animal and Human Imaging Research CoreFacilities. The consortium under the current and successor PRTLI cycles will target investmentin these Core Facilities for advanced equipment upgrades/service and dedicated long-termresearch technician/engineer support – two key infrastructural deficits identified as severelylimiting Ireland‟s international competiveness in the 2006 HEA review on ResearchInfrastructures. The BioPhotonics Imaging Platform has its own specific Research Programmes building on the expertise of Principal Investigators. The Platform will provide theinfrastructure for Ireland's participation in large-scale international research programmes inFP7 and the development of the ESFRI roadmap in Structural Biology in which advancedimaging facilities are a key component. The NBIP will also play a key role for Ireland in theESFRI Emerging Proposal- European Infrastructure for Research in Biomedical Imaging(EIRBI).

The NBIP potential in the European roadmap for research infrastructuresThe National Biophotonics Imaging Platform addresses key infrastructure deficits in Europeand can underpin Ireland‟s participation in the ESFRI Roadmap in Euro Bio-Imaging:

European Emerging Areas:

Advanced Light Microscopy for EuropeThe goal of this initiative is to establish advanced light microscopy imaging centres in Europeto generate and apply novel advanced technology for non-invasive imaging of biomolecularfunction in living systems ranging from single cells to model animals. With the explosion inthe use of digital imaging techniques in basic research, the funding necessary to establish therequired infrastructure and human expertise exceeds considerably both the financial andscientific capabilities of individual laboratories or even of institutions.

European Infrastructure for Research in Biomedical Imaging (EIRBI)

A number of in vitro techniques are now available to biologists for assessing, at the molecularlevel, the occurrence of abnormal gene expression that accompanies the development of a pathological state. The field of biomedical imaging is challenged to translate these tremendousachievements into early diagnosis and efficient follow-upof therapeutic treatments as well as developing novel, imaging-guided, drug-delivery andminimally invasive treatments. The establishment of EIRBI is essential to this challenge, andwill further maintain the competitiveness of European industries and academic institutions in

the field of imaging.

The ESFRI roadmap - Interaction between Biological and Medical Sciences (BMS) and

the other Sciences:

The ESFRI roadmap discusses the value of interdisciplinary approaches to generate ideas thatwill open up new and unexpected areas of knowledge. Biological and functional imaging atvarious scales is benefiting enormously from interaction with the physical, chemical,computational and mathematical sciences.




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The National Biophotonics Imaging Platform will stimulate these interactions between the physical and life sciences in specific areas to develop new ideas and technologies. The RCSI isspecifically involved in this interface in the development of novel fluorescence sensors andnanobiophotonics (RCSI-DCU-Tyndall), adaptive optics (NUIG), Mathematical modeling(RCSI-NUIM-UCC) and imaging software (RCSI-NUIG, UCC).

Stepping outside the box: New biological imaging paradigms from other disciplines:The RCSI will seek interdisciplinary partnerships to stimulate innovative research and devicedevelopment in imaging. Two partnerships are particularly compelling in the physical andmathematical sciences which will be promoted by RCSI in the NBIP.

The Image to Mathematical Modelling Transition (IMMT) core is coordinated by theHamilton Institute NUIM. The partners are the Boole Centre for Research in Informatics(UCC), the Hamilton Institute (NUIM) and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland. The purpose of the core is to develop, supply and maintain the mathematical methods andalgorithms that allow mathematical models of biological phenomena to be abstracted from theimages generated by the imaging modalities contained in the NBIP.Specifically, the IMMT core will:

(a) Develop new algorithmic methods that perform the transition from temporal/spatialinformation in bio-images to a quantitative mathematical representation or model of thecorresponding dynamical and spatial variations.(b) Implement the algorithms and model methods in software and test them on exemplar problems.(c) Distribute the algorithms throughout the platform by means of a software workbenchcontaining the methods developed by the core and for use by the NBIP.(d) Develop and operate a database for image data associated with the NBIP.

Astronomical Imaging applied to the Biomedical Sciences

Many novel paradigms in biology have arisen from unexpected applications and developmentsfrom other disciplines. A key element of the NBIP is the breaking down of barriers for

interaction between the Physical and Life Sciences to generate novel ideas and technologies in biophotonics and imaging. Advanced Imaging analysis is a particular strength of theAstronomy groups at NUIG & UCC whereas advanced optics and cameras are strengths of theAdaptive Optics group at NUIG, the Tyndall Institute and Astrophysics group at UCC. The NBIP will use powerful astronomical imaging techniques and software applied to biologicalimaging, in both the temporal and spatial domain. The NBIO will fund Ph.D.s in theAstrophysics groups in NUIG & UCC to develop novel imaging modalities with applicationsin biomedical imaging.




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RCSI Research Institute - Management and Strategy

3.1 Management Structure

Overall responsibility for the running of the RCSI Research Institute will reside with theDirector of Research and a Research Institute Executive Committee, supported by theAssociate Directors of Research and Technology Transfer, and an administrative teamincluding a Research Projects Officer, Operation administrator and Assistant. The reportingline for the Director is to the CEO and ultimately to Council.

The RIEB has the overall responsibility in decision-making on every aspect of the day-to-dayResearch Institute activities and is supported by the Associate Directors of Research and

Technology Transfer, RCSI Research Accountant and an administrative team including aResearch Executives and Operation Assistant. The reporting line for the Director is to the CEOand ultimately to Council. Membership of the RIEB comprises the heads of the five Diseaseand the Population Health Cluster, the RCSI Director of Research and the Deputy CEO. TheResearch Executive Committee is chaired by the Director of Research who has overallresponsibility for all decisions taken concerning budget, scientific direction and strategy of theResearch Institute. The Executive Committee may co-opt members from other ResearchInstitute researchers and support staff if required. The Executive Committee is re-constitutedevery 5 years. It is planned that from time to time the RIEB will establish a panel of ad hoc scientific advisors external to RCSI from Research Institutes abroad. The Executive Committeewill call on the advice of its external advisors to review Research Institute activities in the

context of best competitive International practice. Reports are made regularly to the ResearchCommittee and the Medical Faculty Board on Research Institute activities.The Research Committee is the principal College Committee with responsibility to formulateand develop the Research Strategy of the College and to ensure the operations of the ResearchOffice and the activities of the Research Institute are coherent with this strategy and with the best international practice in the conduct and support of research. The Research Committeecarries out reviews on Research Institute activities, strategic direction, outputs and performanceand establishes sub-committees where necessary for such reviews and reports. The CollegeCouncil or Senior Management may instruct the Research Committee to carry out reviews as




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appropriate. The Research Committee membership is limited to a maximum of 14 membersrepresenting as broadly as possible the various constituencies of research, teaching and Collegeservice which impact on RCSI‟s research reputation and endeavour. The Research Committeeincludes representatives from: CEO's nominee; School of Nursing; Dean's nominee; Directorof Research; Surgical R&D Colles Institute; School of Pharmacy - staff elected; ResearchInstitute SSG- Staff elected; Research Institute ERC- Staff elected; Head of School ofPostgraduate Studies; Director of Finance or nominee; Presidents nominee (Chair); BeaumontHospital Consultant; Senior Management Team; Population Health The Research Committeeis reconstituted every 3 years with 7 members rotating off in the last year of their term. Novoted member may serve longer than 6 years.The Research Institute will be supported by its funded Principal Investigators and researcherswhose activity supports the College‟s strategy in Translational Research – from bench to bedside to population

In addition, the Research Institute will develop research and training partnerships nationallyand internationally with its overseas medical schools, research institutes and industrial partners.Ideally these collaborative partnerships should be in the form of a signed Memorandum ofUnderstanding (MOU) or Research Collaborative Contract. Current examples of formal

Research Partnerships include, nationally, the Crumlin Hospital Children‟s Research Centre,DCU-BDI CSET, the NBIP and internationally, The Howard Florey Institute, Melbourne,Australia, The Blood Institute, Wisconsin, USA, The Institute of Functional Genomics,Montpellier, France, the Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging at the Italian NationalResearch Council (IBB-CNR, Naples), the Institute for Translational Medicine & Therapeutics,University of Pennsylvania, USA and the University of Massachusetts Medical School USA .These collaborations will be developed further particularly for Ph.D. electives, seniorresearcher exchange programmes and knowledge transfer.

The National Institute of Health, which invests more than $28 billion annually in medicalresearch, is moving beyond the model of clinical research centres to large-scale, translationalresearch facilities. The NIH recently issued a call for the establishment of translational research

facilities, with a typical budget of $100 million per centre. The University of Pennsylvania wassuccessful in the NIH Translational Centre Call and its programme director Prof GarretFitzgerald has strong links with RCSI under PRTLI Cycle 3 and PRTLI Cycle 4 providing PhDtraining mobility programmes for RCSI researchers.

In May 2008, the RCSI signed a MoU with the University of Massachussetts to develop jointventures in research, education and overseas development . The UMass Medical School andRCSI will engage in partnership to develop a RNAi research and therapeutics programmes incollaboration with the DCU Nano-bioanalytical Research Facility, which will have a focus ontranslational nanomedicine.

3.2 Research Funding

The Research Institute development builds on the Cycle 3 Programme for Human Genomics(RCSI budget €22M). The major source of Research Institute funding over the strategic plan2009-2014 will come from peer-reviewed awards from HEA PRTLI, SFI, HRB, WellcomeTrust and EU FP7, Industry partnerships, commercialization and from the RCSI privateresources and charitable donations. The Research Institute has already secured PRTLI4 funding(NBIP & MMI Clinical Science training fellowships €13M) for the period 2008 -2013. TheResearch Institute will enter PRTLI5 with a single programme in Translational Research toestablish a Translational Research Hub with DCU and NUIM in the Greater North Dublinregion. RCSI will seek capital funding for a Translational Research Centre , ERC Phase II




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building, at Beaumont Hospital. The Translational Hub will support a PhD programme inBioanalytical Therapeutics centered around the five RCSI-prioritised Disease Clusters andsupported by clinician-scientist co-supervised research programmes.

3.3 Disease Research Clusters

The College has established strategic Disease Clusters within the Research Institute to aid in itstranslational research goals and strategy. These Clusters will be comprised of a consortium ornetwork of laboratories in the Research Institute and at Beaumont & Connolly Hospitals as anenhanced mechanism for collaborative research interaction between clinicians and scientists.Each Disease Cluster will represent a major area of current RCSI and Hospital research.Specifically, RCSI will aspire to world-class research in a small number of Disease areas toinclude, breast, prostate, colorectal & skin cancers, respiratory inflammation,neurodegeneration & behaviour, thrombosis & stroke.The College has significant and growing strengths in Population Health & Health CareManagement which cut across many disease clusters and the Population Health Cluster will besupported by the College as key to delivering Translational Research benefits out into thecommunity.

A key element in delivering true Translational research will be effective communication and

research partnerships between hospital consultants and Research Institute scientists. For this towork, an Academic Health Centre (AHC) will be developed between RCSI, Beaumont andConnolly Hospitals and possibly a new private-partnership RCSI hospital in the same HSEarea. An alignment of the research strategy between RCSI and the hospitals under an AHC will be key to deliver effective Translational Research, particularly in areas of designated “Centresof Excellence” within these hospitals. The AHC should ideally become the vehicle fordeveloping associated hospital involvement in the Translational Hub.Current clinical expertise and national speciality referrals in the RCSI-AHC (Academic HealthCentre) include renal transplantation, neurology (epilepsy, schizophrenia, Traumatic Brain




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Injury (TBI)), endocrinology (diabetes, pituitary dysfunction), respiratory inflammatorydiseases (Cystic Fibrosis, Asthma, Alpha-1 anti trypsin) and breast, and colorectal cancer. TheRCSI-AHC will promote the incorporation of these clinical areas of expertise into a commonTranslational Research Strategy and an alignment of Hospital and RCSI strategic plans forresearch and clinician scientists training.

Disease Research Clusters – internal structureThe leadership of the Clusters will be agreed by the PIs within each Cluster. The Cluster Headswill form the Research Executive Committee and remain in place for the duration of thestrategic plan. The Cluster structure will provide focus and critical mass in research areas ofevident international strength and expertise. The Cluster structure will be adaptable in regard toinclusion of new research groups or research groups winding-down. It will improve RCSI‟s

competitiveness in getting large grant applications. It is expected that the Cluster structureswill assist in the targeted hiring of biomedical lecturers for specific Cluster enhancement in agiven direction decided by the Research Executive Committee.The Disease Clusters are supported by translational platforms including discipline specificsciences and Core Technologies. Translational platforms will interact with multiple DiseaseClusters and act as enabling and support platforms for these Disease Clusters. The mainenabling technologies for RCSI in the translational space are proteomics (via the RCSI Centrefor Human Proteomics), Biomedical Research Facility (BRF), imaging (via the NationalBioPhotonics Imaging Platform coordinated by RCSI), Drug Delivery (via PRTLI3-fundedAdvanced Drug Delivery Facility at RCSI School of Pharmacy) and medicinal chemistry. Keyinter-disciplinary scientific expertise lie in the areas of Bio-engineering, Tissue Engineering,Infection & Immunity and Molecular Medicine. The College is supporting other translationalenabling activities in its Clinical Research Centre, particularly for the training of clinicianscientists in clinical trial protocols and ethical and legal procedures as well as advancedtraining for research nurses.

3.4 Clinical Research Centre

The department of health and children's 2001 strategy document, Making Knowledge Work forhealth identified clinical research centres (CRCs) as a key infrastructure need. there are now

four such centres either operational or planned – with Beaumont/RCSI and St. James’s having

capacity to do clinical trials

The RCSI has led the development of clinical trials and close collaborations between its majorteaching hospital and the Education and Research Centre at Beaumont in founding Ireland‟s

first Clinical Research Centre. Over the period 2008-2013, the CRC will provide theinfrastructure for research nurse training and electronic database management for theHRB/Wellcome Trust €20M investment in a Dublin-wide Clinical Research Facility. Throughits executive management role in the MMI, the RCSI will collaborate with UCD and TCD in

broadening the Dublin CRF to include the medical schools of Cork and Galway in an IrishClinical Research Infrastructure Network (ICRIN). The ICRIN will serve as Ireland‟s platform

to join the European equivalent – ECRIN in FP7.

The management and direction of the Clinical Research Center will devolve to a new CRCResearch Executive, chaired by the Professor of Translational Medicine to include membershipof Professors in Medicine, Surgery, Pathology, Cardiovascular Science plus 2 consultantmembers nominated by the Beaumont Hospital Medical Executive. The CRC will promote




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clinical trials in the niche Disease Clusters & the training of clinician-scientists and researchnurses.

3.5 The Colles’ Institute This Institute will endeavour to advance the care of the surgical patient by extending thefrontiers of clinical standards (therapeutic strategies and technologies) and by providing

education and training to enable the rapid transfer of these standards into practice. As well asmeeting the lifelong education and training needs of trainees, surgeons, other members of thesurgical team and other specialties, the Colles‟ Institute will also offer a full suite of surgical

clinical research and technology development services to clinicians, researchers, and industryin Ireland and abroad.The Institute is named after Abraham Colles (1773 – 1843) of the famed fracture, who was anRCSI President and who quite extraordinarily held three RCSI Professorships in Anatomy,Surgery and Physiology. The Colles‟ Institute will be formally launched to the public in 2010.This Institute will build on our college‟s existing reputation as an innovator in surgical

education and training. We were first in the world to develop and deliver a national structuredtraining programme to augment the traditional apprenticeship model, and first in the world to

develop and deliver a mobile surgical skills unit, innovative online surgical education tools(BeST and School for Surgeons), and a methodology for surgical skills assessment forselection into higher surgical training.However, the college and surgical education and training are facing further challenges on anumber of fronts. The introduction of the European Time Working Directive will furtherreduce in-hospital training opportunities and governments throughout the world are seeking fora reduction in the time to train surgeons. The challenge to our College now is to makeeducation and training more accessible and efficient. This challenge is amplified by theincreasing advances in new technologies and drug therapies, with more than 150 new surgical procedures introduced over the last decade. Finally, the move towards re-licensing and re-certification for surgeons and lifelong learning for all the surgical team will increase the need

for continuous professional skills training programmes. The Colles‟ Institute will endeavour toextend the frontiers of surgical knowledge through the teaching of surgical skills and theadvancement of clinical and teaching knowledge.The Colles‟ Institute currently consists of three centres: First, the existing National Surgical

Training Centre (NSTC), a world leader in the development and delivery of procedural basededucation, training and assessment. Second, the Centre for Innovation in Surgical Technology(CIST), to provide a range of services to surgeons, researchers and industry to facilitate thedevelopment and rapid transfer of new technologies into practice. CIST key goals are todevelop, assess, acquire, and commercialise surgical technology products and companies.Finally, the Centre for Clinical Research and Development (CCR&D), which was awardedRCSI Synergy seed funding in 2009, and provides the full suite of clinical research services to

support surgical research. The services of CCR&D will help to support and further facilitateclinical research by surgeons in Ireland or internationally, by the college‟s NSTC or CIST, or

by industry.The Institute is currently located on St. Stephen‟s Green in RCSI House, however in 2011 i twill be relocated to a custom built, state-of-the-art facility that will support research into andteaching of the latest techniques and procedures. The new facility will occupy 2600m 2 acrossthree floors of the new building that the college is currently constructing on York Street.Fundraising for this new facility which will cost over €15M (€10M for land and building and

€5M for equipment) will commence in 2009. The design of this new facility builds on the

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college‟s experiences in their existing training and research centres and incorporates a widerange of features from the world‟s leading training and research centres.

The ground floor will contain a state of the art conference centre with auditorium andamphitheatre. The first floor will contain small conference rooms and office space for facultyand staff. Finally the lower ground floor will consist of 20 work stations, with each stationequipped with all the required equipment and services to carry out a wide range surgical procedures from open to laparoscopic using either wet or dry models. In addition to trainingand assessment, the facility will also be used for CCR&D research activities.The rooms throughout this new facility will be linked audio-visually to each other or to anyIrish or global location or operating theatre using videoconferencing. This connectivity willenable Surgery to further extend their current philanthropic education and training activities inAfrica. Although this facility has been primarily designed to facilitate the teaching of surgicalskills, its flexible design ensures that it will be suitable for a variety of specialties andaudiences with a multitude of educational, conference, and meeting needs.After almost 250 years of leadership in surgery, RCSI, by creating the Colles‟ Institute will

endeavour to ensure that our College continues to best meet the needs of today‟s and

tomorrow‟s surgical patients and surgeons.




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4.Fostering Population and International Health Research at RCSI: 2009-2014

During the period 2009 – 2014 we plan to build on the critical mass of research expertise,which has been achieved through the establishment of the Division of Population HealthSciences (comprising Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine, General Practice andPsychology); the close research links the Division has with the Dept of International Health

and Tropical Medicine; and other research links across College as appropriate. We will expandour collective health systems research activities, building on recent successes in: (i) attractingnational population based studies such as SLAN-06, (ii) doctoral research programmes – theHRB Scholars Programme in Health Services Research and the Irish Aid HEA Ireland AfricaPartnership, and (iii) Health Research Centres – such as the HRB Health Research Centre inPrimary Care. These successes in competitive research awards have already resulted in adoubling of research staff numbers in Population Health Sciences in two years.

Further growth will firstly be based on addressing the priorities, strengthening our links anddelivering on the knowledge needs of Irish government and related research funding agencies,especially HRB and HEA, in the areas of national and international health research. Other

strategic research funding opportunities will be pursued, e.g. within the EU Framework 7Programme, and from the Wellcome Trust and other UK-based funding agencies. Secondly,we will work with RCSI Senior Management to identify strategic opportunities to strengthenlink College links with the HSE and the Dept of Health and Children, which may includeCollege-funded and co-funded link posts. Such College commitments have already been madein the area of International Health to strengthen research and training links with sub-SaharanAfrica.

RCSI is now in a position to become a stronger centre of excellence nationally andinternationally in research that contributes to policies and programmes that improve health;through rigorous evaluations of Population Health and Health Services interventions; through building research capacity and the next generation of trained researchers, both nationally (in

Ireland) and internationally (especially in Africa); and in ensuring that research findings aretranslated into policy and practice. International Health research will continue to develop as acollaborative inter-departmental cluster within RCSI, bringing together complementary skillsand diverse backgrounds, and thereby strengthening synergistic links between academic RCSIdepartments.

4.1 Irish research focusThe research focus will be on addressing the major health challenges in Ireland – through patient and service evaluation and problem identification; through evaluation of novelinterventions; through development of ICT systems to improve service delivery and quality

assurance; through health services outcomes research and in particular how to undertakeinterdisciplinary assessments of health services impact on patient care and outcomes; and inresearching the processes and strategies for getting research into policy and practice. We willfocus on research-capacity strengthening, through the production of HSR-trained andembedded PhD Scholars and further initiatives of this kind; and through the furtherdevelopment of postdoctoral research staff in Leadership and Management Skills.

4.2 Developing country research focusThe research focus will be on addressing the major health problems of developing countries,with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa, including: HIV1, malaria, health worker training




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and retention, HBV, health systems, maternal health, and equity and access to services.Research will aim to promote transparent public ownership, sustainable solutions, and tooperate in a way that empowers women and the poor. Research will contribute to newknowledge on preventative interventions including clean water, vaccine development, safemotherhood, strengthening national level policies and programmes, and operational researchintegrated with health practice. The focus of the new RCSI-led Ireland Africa Partnership will be on research-capacity strengthening, both in Ireland and among the African partners.

4.3 Research partnerships

Research in the Division of Population Health Sciences will build on the strong collaborativeresearch partnerships that already exist between RCSI researchers and research groups in otherIrish and selected UK third-level institutions, and with key stakeholders and knowledge usersin Irish agencies such as the HSE, HIQA and the Department of Health and Children. InInternational Health, we will build on the strong collaborative research partnerships thatalready exist between RCSI Faculty members across several departments and more than 20research groups in resource-poor countries, especially in Africa; with researchers in other Irishand UK third-level institutions; as well as with global stakeholders within the UN multilateraland bilateral agency systems.




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5 Strengthening of RCSI’s Research Management and Support

The Research Office

Mission statement: The office will enhance funding opportunities, technology transfer,commercialization and successful awards to staff and will encourage an environmentconducive for internationally competitive research.The research office will be a national example of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery ofsupport to research.

Role of the research office in the strategic management and support of research

Strategy Management of the Research Pillar: - RCSI is a leader in niche areas of Translationaland Health Medicine

1. Action and sustaining the Research Strategy through specified support to capital andhuman resources (see Appendix 1).

- Professorial appointments

- Research Lectureships and Research Engineers and Technicians- Identifying and supporting promising young research talent- Promoting interaction and collaboration between clinicians and scientists- Research Institute - planning and management for current activity and expansion,

space usage and allocation, and equipment procurement- National and International Research partnerships – identification of opportunities,

selection, support, management and delivery

Strategy Management for the Research Office - an efficient adaptable research managementadministrative support service to RCSI

2. Evolving and sustaining a Strategy for the Research Office to become a Nationalexample of efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of support to research

- Management of new research support functions, expanded activities andresponsibilities

- Management and administrative support to the Research Institute- Enhancing funding opportunities and success- Managing Institutional and Inter-Institutional Research Programmes and Proposals- Promotion of Technology Transfer, Intellectual Property exploitation and

commercialisation- Liaison with funding agencies, national and international bodies dealing with research

funding and policy.

- Compliance in research audits and research reporting to funding agencies

The research institute strategy may be viewed at: http://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?&pID=93&nID=96 .

http://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?&pID=93&nID=96







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6. Knowledge transfer strategy (2009 – 2014)

RCSI is a self-financing independent medical College located in the heart of Dublin since1794. Throughout its long history, RCSI‟s reputation as an innovative and commercially

active leader in the field of biomedicine has been widely and internationally recognised.Recently described in the Irish Times as an “entrepreneurial rapid-response unit worth

€500M ”, the College represents not only a highly regarded centre of medical and surgical

training, but also a rapidly growing institute of world-class biomedical innovation.

The RCSI Technology Transfer Office was established in October 2007 with the recruitment of

Dr. Gear óid Tuohy, now charged with harnessing innovation into commercial assets andrevenue generating opportunities for the College. Since the launch of the RCSI‟s Technology

Transfer Office (TTO), the initial team has expanded to three and, in the space of less than 15months, has generated just under €1M in revenue from the execution of option, licensing andcollaborative agreements based on College intellectual property.Much of the success of the RCSI TTO has been built on the timely investments of EnterpriseIreland in the establishment of infrastructure and resources embedded within the technologytransfer function. EI funding has enabled the College to recruit experienced commercial skillsthat now add significant value to both the commercial assets and the ability to executetransactions.With the continued support of EI the College‟s TTO aims to be self -financing within a shortnumber of years. This commitment readily sits with the RCSI‟s independent ethos and its

commitment to continuing innovation and the development of Ireland‟s knowledge economy.

Technology transfer in the RCSI is not restricted to commercialisation of patentable research.Other types of important and tangible IP such as educational products and tools provide animportant output for the College, and have contributed to the national skill base as well as providing the basis for generating revenue for the College. The Colles Institute has beenestablished to advance the care of the surgical patient by extending the frontiers of clinicalstandards (therapeutic strategies and technologies) and by providing education and training toenable the rapid transfer of these standards into practice. As well as meeting the lifelongeducation and training needs of trainees, surgeons, other members of the surgical team andother specialties, the Colles‟ Institute will also offer a full suite of surgical clinical research and

technology development services to clinicians, researchers, and industry in Ireland and abroad.The Institute is named after Abraham Colles (1773 – 1843) of the famed fracture, who was anRCSI President and who quite extraordinarily held three RCSI Professorships in Anatomy,Surgery and Physiology. The Colles‟ Institute will be formally launched to the pu blic in 2010.

This Institute will build on RCSI‟s existing reputation as an innovator in surgical education and

training. RCSI was first in the world to develop and deliver a national structured training

programme to augment the traditional apprenticeship model, and first in the world to developand deliver a mobile surgical skills unit, innovative online surgical education tools (BeST andSchool for Surgeons), and a methodology for surgical skills assessment for selection intohigher surgical training.













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6.1 Commercialization Strategy

The College has a long track record for enterprise and commercialization. As an example, theCollege has successfully commercialized an on-line surgical training service (School forSurgeonsTM – see http://www.rcsi.ie/postgraduate_surgery/school_for_surgeons/index.asp?id=37&pid=1277). "SCHOOL for Surgeons" - Surgical Conferencing with enHanced Opportunities for OnlineLearning - provides the trainee with regularly updated clinical and other material designed to promote self-directed learning, challenge the trainees to actively seek to expand theirknowledge base, and develop their analytical and clinical decision-making skills. The programme is delivered using an open source virtual learning environment (Moodle) which is based on a social constructionist pedagogic model.A further example is BeSTTM (or Basicelectronic Surgical Training), a structured surgical training programme for post-graduatesurgical trainees, delivered over the web. This programme was developed at RCSI incollaboration with a technology company and Harvard Medical International (part of theHarvard Medical School), This online programme is now being used in surgical trainingextensively in the US.

The Technology Transfer Office will pursue a commercialization strategy that (1) supports theabove-referenced Missions Statements of the RCSI Research Institute, especially thecommercialisation of research for the benefit of the RCSI and the nations health gain, and (2) isconsistent with the National Codes of Practice related to management and commercializationof IP. Clearly, the main area of support will be in the area of IP capture, protection,development and exploitation.RCSI recognises its responsibility to generate value from the investment in research.This will be done by utilizing the most suitable route of exploitation of College IP. It is likelythat three main mechanisms, already in place in the College today, will be employed, namely(1) licensing (or assignment) of IP in the fields of healthcare (including therapeutics,diagnostics, prognostics, theranostics, and education), (2) setting up RCSI-based serviceofferings in the healthcare field, which service offering are based on RCSI IP, and (3) settingup campus companies for the exploitation of appropriate RCSI IP.

As an example, these mechanisms will be applied to the following proposed projects within theRCSI:(1) RCSI Pharma – a proposed campus company being set up to exploit the technologies indevelopment within the RCSI School of Pharmacy, including oral drug delivery formulations,and a pulmonary delivery vehicle for respiratory disorders. This company is being driven byProf John Kelly who has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has thesupport of a number of influential industry figures.

(2) Biophotonics/Imaging – the RCSI is leading the successful NBIP Imaging/Biophotonics platform. This industry focussed platform which involves collaborations with a number of

international and industrial partners has the capacity to generate a considerable high techapplied IP portfolio.

(3) Disease-Associated Biomarkers – the RCSI has established a body of IP in the field ofdisease-associated biomarkers. The College is currently engaging with Pharma companies toassess how the RCSI libraries of biomarkers will be used in collaborative clinical developmentstudies. It is hoped that the biomarker IP would be licensed out on foot of a royalty bearinglicense agreement.

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http://moodle.org/

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6.2 IP Training/Awareness Strategy

The College technology transfer function is efficiently managed through a close workingrelationship with the RCSI Research Office. This approach brings the College TTO into linewith best practice internationally and facilitates management across the research continuumfrom basic research through invention disclosure, patent filing and commercialisation. The

benefits of this management system contribute to successful protection of research assets byidentifying IP at an early stage and ensuring that early stage agreements such as MTAs andconfidentiality agreements are appropriately drafted to avoid any compromise of College‟s

intellectual property and subsequent commercialization options.

The following activities form part of the training/awareness strategy of the RCSI TechnologyTransfer Office:

1. Representative of Technology Transfer Office meetings with Head of each Departmentin the College on a quarterly basis to review ongoing projects.

2. Regular face-to-face interaction with PIs and research groups re-enforces the

importance of recognising issues that may impact on the ability to protect researchassets.

3. IP awareness lectures provided to 1st year PhDs, MScs and summer students at thecommencement of their projects on the benefits of commercialisation of research.

4. IP Clinics facilitated by external patent attorneys covering the basics of patent filingand answering specific questions on a case by case basis.

5. Commercialisation clinics presented by EI commercialisation specialists communicatethe importance of protecting potential commercial applications of all basic and appliedresearch.

6. Promotional activities to make technology transfer offering clear to researchers.a. comprehensive intranet website,

b. the publication of a quarterly email newsletter containing relevant andinformative articles relating to the commercialisation of research and thesupports available from the TTO.

c. Presentations at the Research Interaction Workshop7. The College underscores the commitment to supporting innovation through an annual

“IDEAS” prize which rewards research staff that contribute to the generation of new

inventions.8. Training on patent database searching is provided to researchers on a number of patent

search databases.9. All RCSI grant registration forms include section drawing PI‟s attention to RCSI Patent

Policy, and to IP policy of funding body, especially as regards prompt reporting of

inventions, and need for confidentiality. This section needs to be signed by the PI,whereby they acknowledge they have read and understand the relevant policies.

6.3 Institutional Support for TT Office and IP

The RCSI Patents and Inventions policy recognizes that revenue generated by College patentswill be shared amongst the College, the inventors department(s), and the inventors. This policyalso outlines the authority and responsibilities of the TTO, a copy of which is provided to everyemployee upon their appointment.




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To ensure that commercialisation activities are recognised for career enhancement purposes,the RCSI Promotions Committee will consider the following activities as being importantconsiderations for career advancement in the RCSI: involvement in development andcommercialization projects; involvements in patents; involvement in EI CommercialisationProjects; Industry Collaborations; secondments to industry.

6.4 Management Structure of Technology Transfer Function The RCSI TTO is the designated office charged with the responsibility of managing theCollege‟s IP and commercialisation activities. The Assoc. Director is the designated legalauthority for all IP, option, license and commercial agreements involving patented researchassets of the RCSI. The Assoc. Director reports directly to College‟s Senior Management

Team including the Vice-President of the RCSI and the College‟s Director of Research.

Reporting to the Assoc. Director is the Technology Transfer Manager and the TechnologyTransfer Administrator.

6.5 Commercialisation Committee

College TTO has established a Commercialization Committee which includes a variety ofspecialists from the fields of patent licensing and venture capital. Biotechnology executives inUS companies, academic specialists and medical specialists working at the interface ofresearch and industry are also involved. In addition, College TTO staff have been recruitedspecifically from a commercial background and as such bring the added-value of personalcommercial networks and diligence capacity to early stage projects. The availability of suchskill bases permits effective management of scarce resources such that College makescommercially focused decisions in order to maximize a return on the investment in basicresearch.

The College TTO actively engages with its designated EI Commercialisation Specialist on aregular basis for both reporting progress on EI investments and in order to avail of access to theEI network of indigenous companies - to date this has resulted in the execution of a number ofoption/license agreements.




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6.6 Outreach

Since 2000, the RCSI has had a sustained programme for Outreach activities to promoteknowledge sharing so as to maximise the returns to education, the economy and society.

Public Outreach Activities

RCSI Mini-Med School

The RCSI Mini-Med School is an informative and entertaining public education seminarseries developed for people who are interested in learning more about health, medicine andthe delivery of healthcare in Ireland. The Mini-Med School programme comprises a series oflectures delivered by RCSI academic staff, including some of Ireland‟s leading physicians

and researchers. Participants learn directly from the experts how our body works, how to takean active role in maintaining their health as well as the opportunity to hear about cutting-edgedevelopments. The event comprises two lectures, one evening per week over 10 weeks on a broad range of medical and health related matters including psychiatric illness, anatomy,cardiovascular disease, diabetes, snoring, childhood accidents, cancer and general practice. Inan age of increased patient participation and greater health awareness, the Mini-Med Schoolaffords people the opportunity to learn more about topical health related issues from leadingexperts and to gain an insight into medical terminology, research and patient care.(www.minimedschool.ie)

Mini-Med school forms part of the RCSI Outreach strategy which aims to increase awarenessof health related issues in the general public providing the public with a forum to learn in arelaxed educational environment. This is the sixth year that RCSI has hosted this noveleducational event, which was originally introduced to Ireland by RCSI in 1997. Previousyears have attracted widespread public interest with demand for places far outstrippingavailability. These programmes impact nationally on the general public‟s perceptions of

medicine and healthcare and help break down barriers in relation to access to medicalinformation and also medical education. Presenting medical information in a relaxedengaging environment ultimately means it has more relevance to people‟s life and furthereducation is perceived as more accessible. Mini Med School participants bring with them awealth of self-directed learning and knowledge derived from their own family healthexperiences. This makes for a much more exciting interaction with MMS audiences andfeedback from these events are always positive.

RCSI Mini Med School RoadshowDue to the popularly of the Dublin based Mini Med School RCSI recently developed a Mini-Med Roadshow. This unique outreach initiative was designed to facilitate the general public inlocations outside the greater Dublin area with a forum to learn about the most up-to-dateknowledge and opinions on human health, disease, diagnosis and treatment. In 2008 this biennial event was based at the RCSI/HSE Education Centre in Waterford Regional Hospitaland 140 participants registered for the programme, consisting of a series of 10 lectures whichwere presented over 5 consecutive weeks in September and October 2008.

http://www.minimedschool.ie/

http://www.minimedschool.ie/




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RCSI Annual Outreach Public Lecture

The Annual Outreach Lecture is one of the key events in the RCSI calendar. The targetaudience of this lecture is the general public and it is delivered by a world-renowned scientiston a topic of relevance to the RCSI‟s research programme. The speaker talks about their

subject with passion, and they are able to inform, inspire and entertain any audience. Thislecture promotes awareness of, and an interest in, research, science and technology, to thewider community. The lecture is also about increasing the profile of the College in the publicdomain and as such speakers are chosen for their ability to induce media interest.

Thir d Level Outr each Activiti es

RCSI Undergraduate Research Summer StudentshipsThis programme provides a unique education experience over the summer months for ouryoung talented students (RCSI, Medical University of Bahrain & Penang Medical College,Malaysia only). Our students are encouraged to gain hands-on experience of the challenges thatcome with conducting research work under the guidance of RCSI clinicians and scientists. Thestudent‟s summer research is presented at Research Day (see below). There are a series ofundergraduate student research workshops & journal clubs run over the summer months toenhance their research experience. Details for this programme are posted on the RCSI website(http://www.rcsi.ie).

Summer Programme in Undergraduate Research on Neuroscience (SPUR-ON)

SPUR-ON 2009 is the fourth SFI UREKA site coordinated at RCSI and has now expanded toinclude the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN). SPUR-ON participants will take part in cutting edge neuroscience research, encompassing broad and interdisciplinarymethodological approaches. Students will also take part in a 10 week programme of scienceand social activities including journal club, workshops, and social events. The end of the programme will culminate in a "mini-symposium" where participants will prepare an abstractand present their research as an oral presentation. Dates for SPUR-ON 2009 are Monday 15thJune 2009 until Friday August 21st 2009. In terms of support, students accepted to SPUR-ONwill receive a stipend of €300/week for 10 weeks. Participants coming from the EU outside

Ireland may receive up to €300 towards travel expenses. Participants coming from outside the

EU may receive up to €800 towards travel expenses. Students are personally responsible for any necessary travel visas and medical insurance. Although the projects are neuroscience based, the approaches are multi-disciplinary, and applicants from a wide range ofundergraduate courses are considered for this programme. The SPUR-ON projects are hostedat three sites: RCSI St Stephen's Green campuses in Dublin city centre, the Education andResearch Centre in the Smurfit Building at Beaumont Hospital (easily accessible by publictransport) and Trinity College Dublin which is a short walk from St. Stephen‟s Green.

Images of Science CompetitionThis annual science as art competition is open to everyone working or studying in the RoyalCollege of Surgeons in Ireland. The competition runs from August to October and the winnersare announced in early November. The overall winning image and the 11 runners up imagesare taken and used to create a wall planner for the following year. These wall planners are usedthroughout the College by staff and students alike and include important College dates tofacilitate the flow of information. The event finale will be a talk on the stories behind thewinning images and will be given to the reseachers of the college and invited guests (including

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interested journalists and reporters and the sponsor). This event requires full sponsorship. The prize for the overall winner of this event is 1500 euro towards either a digital camera or laptopof their choice and a canvas print of their winning image. The 11 runners up get a canvas printof their image.

RCSI Annual Research DayThe Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland held its inaugural Research Day in 1984 as part of itsBicentennial Celebrations. This event was so successful that it is now an annual event in theCollege calendar and is traditionally held on the first Wednesday after Easter.Research Day provides a forum for undergraduate and postgraduate students from alldepartments to present their most recent research findings either by oral or poster presentations,and affords an opportunity for research discussions between, for example, the basic scientistand the clinician, and between the molecular expert and the systems expert. Every year thereare several significant and prestigious prizes on offer, and there is keen and healthycompetition between the researchers. The increasing number of undergraduate studentscarrying out funded research projects during the summer months has caused a welcomeexpansion of their contribution to the overall programme. Abstracts of the presentations are published in an annual Book of Abstracts. A highlight of the day is the Distinguished GuestLecture. Research Day is seen as a major social event at RCSI and is keenly anticipated everyyear and the evening ends with a Buffet Supper for all participants.Research Day can also draw interest from Ireland‟s media where last year, 2008, saw several

projects reported in various Irish newspapers. This year Research Day 2009 will be held on15th April, 2009.

Secondary School Outr each Activiti es

Mini-Med School for Transition Year Students

The Mini-Med School for Transition Year Students is an informative and entertaining publiceducation programme developed for students in their transition year in school. During thisevent students can enjoy the experience of what it will be like to train and work as a medicaldoctor and get a feel for the different stages of a career in medicine. Students have anopportunity to see live operations, to attend interactive lectures delivered by some of Ireland‟s

finest Doctors and Surgeons, and to get hands on training in Clinical skills as well asexperience in medical and scientific practical‟s and tutorials. Students also have access totraining materials on the RCSI Medical Information Technology Platform. A series oflectures is hosted on this platform along with relevant additional information, quizzesand competitions. In 2009 this one-week programme was held in January when RCSI hosted150 transition year students. Dates for the 2010 programme will be available in October or November 2009 when applications will be invited.

Debating Science Issues (DSI) DSI is a Regenerative Medicine Institute (REMEDI) led dynamic debating competition whichinvites young people to engage in debate on the cultural, societal and ethical implications ofadvances in biomedical science. Open to students in the senior cycle of Irish Second LevelEducation (15-18 years), participating students take part in a series of 3 hour workshops whichfacilitate discussion and learning about biomedical science – including stem cell research, theethics of animal research and nanotechnology – in an informal round table open forum.Providing an open and impartial environment, these workshops challenge students to think




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about the ethical and societal impact of biomedical research and ignites their desire to learnmore about this important area of research. This enthusiasm finds an outlet in the debatingcompetition itself. Hosted by 5 Irish research centres based in NUIG, UCC, TCD, RCSI &DCU as well as with W5 in Belfast Debating Science Issues is what true debate is all about.

School VisitsRCSI Research Outreach strongly encourages funded researchers to advance publicunderstanding of science & engineering. Visits by Principal Investigators, PhD Students orother members of their research teams, to Secondary schools to give talks or interactive presentations on their own research, on more general science topics, or on careers in science,are considered particularly valuable exercises that can have enormous impact for the nextgeneration of Irish scientists. Every year a list of RCSI researchers interested in taking part inthe School Visits initiative is posted on the RCSI website (http://www.rcsi.ie), where there isfurther information available on the researcher name and school presentation title and contactdetails for the schools to apply or make enquiries.

Primary School Activities

Small Science, Big Ideas

Small Science, Big Ideas is an informative and fun public education program designed tofamiliarize primary school children with basic scientific concepts and encourage them todevelop their problem solving skills and sense of curiosity. The programme, established in2006, consists of a hands-on workshops designed specifically for younger children (aged 5-12years) and is facilitated by an RCSI scientist, Dr Maria Morgan. The workshops introduce participants to some of the ways scientists work and allow them to conduct simpleexperiments. The Small Science, Big Ideas Programme consists of a suite of workshops basedon varying themes including „food and our bodies‟, „air and our lungs‟, „cracking crime withscience‟, etc. Students become familiar with the major organs in the human body, and howeach plays an important role in their health. Through the experimental activities, we providestudents with the experience of “working scientifically” and encourage them to develop theircuriosity and problem solving skills. Pre- and post-visit materials are provided to teachers andcontain background information on all the activities. The workshops are designed to be portable and can be set-up in any room, no specialist equipment/facilities required. The programme also specifically addresses many aspects of the social, environmental and scienceeducation (SESE) primary school curriculum.

By the end of March 2009 almost 460 primary school children and 16 teachers will have participated in the programme, which has been enthusiastically received thus far. The programme is currently supported by an RDS Science Live Demonstration Bursary andMolecular & Cellular Therapeutics, RCSI. The programme is targeted at the younger classes of

primary schools as this age group, (often neglected in the recent growth of outreach programmes nationally), are at a critical stage in developing and forming attitudes towardsscience/medicine. The workshop represents a fun and educational way of making sciencerelevant and ultimately more accessible to them as a future career.

Science Hands On Workshops (SHOWs)






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These workshops target primary school students and nurtures an inquisitive mind and affectionfor science in our youngest audience. The entire class and their teacher are invited to thecollege and are asked to draw their impression of a scientist before they come and to make alist of questions to ask a scientist in a particular field e.g. bones, brain, blood etc. When theyarrive they get to interview their scientist and to do a scientific experiment. When they leavethey are given a science pack with other experiments that the teacher can get the students to doin their own classroom and a booklet with information and photos from their visit.

School VisitsRCSI Research Outreach strongly encourages funded researchers to advance publicunderstanding of science & engineering. Visits by Principal Investigators, PhD Students orother members of their research teams, to Primary schools to give talks or interactive presentations on their own research, on more general science topics, or on careers in science,are considered particularly valuable exercises that can have enormous impact for the nextgeneration of Irish scientists. Every year a list of RCSI researchers interested in taking part inthe School Visits initiative is posted on the RCSI website (http://www.rcsi.ie), where there isfurther information available on the researcher name and school presentation title and contactdetails for the schools to apply or make enquiries.







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7. STRUCTURED PHD EDUCATION

School of Postgraduate Studies Strategy (2007 – 2012)

Vision for the School of Postgraduate Studies

To develop RCSI postgraduates as competent and inspiring leaders capable of making

significant contributions to human health.

Mission of the School of Postgraduate Studies

To market, recruit, support and retain a world class postgraduate community at RCSI. To train

versatile postgraduates for success and to maximise the influence of RCSI postgraduates in a

range of careers. To support internal and external providers of postgraduate training and toestablish stronger links with national and international peer institutions in the pursuit of

postgraduate excellence.

Introduction

Postgraduate education is critically important to the international reputation of RCSI and, inrecognition of this, the School of Postgraduate Studies was established in September 2006 to pursue a strategic agenda for 4th level education. The School arranges/oversees the taught andresearch programmes, recruitment, registration, monitoring, examination and graduation ofstudents and supervisor training. The School liaises with the Institute of Leadership andHealthcare Management to provide continuing professional development for thedoctoral/postdoctoral community and with the Recruitment, Admissions, Student Services,Fees, Examinations and Communications Offices to provide relevant administrative servicesfor the smooth operation of PhD programmes. The School also interacts strongly with theResearch Office which is responsible for the management of all research programmes.

This strategic agenda of the School for 4th Level education will be channelled using appropriatelinks with relevant constituencies through which high quality communications will be promoted and supported to the benefit of our present, future and past postgraduates.

1 Internal links – the School will provide a centralised, cohesive infrastructure to recruit,support, monitor and retain world class postgraduate students.

2 External links – the School will maintain, improve and establish new links to national andinternational peer organisations as well as other relevant policy and funding agencies.

3 Alumni links – the School will foster dialogue with postgraduate alumni and will organiseregular events to evolve the relationship with its chief constituents.

It has been widely acknowledged that the apprenticeship model no longer provides sufficienttraining for PhDs in the 21st century and a more structured approach to postgraduate training isnecessary to improve the employability of our postgraduates. Therefore, by 2012, all postgraduate research students at RCSI will be enrolled in a structured programme containingthe elements outlined in the diagram below. This structured programme will represent asuccessor programme to the current MRes/PhD Programme, which will be adapted toaccommodate the requirements of all research PhD candidates regardless of their discipline. Itis our recommendation that PhD candidates should be funded for four years full-time and the




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School of Postgraduate Studies will work to move this recommendation forward at local andnational level.

Figure 1: The Postgraduate Student Training Path: from recruitment to career in four years

7.1 Management of the School

The School of Postgraduate Studies sits within the RCSI Medical Faculty and reports to theMedical Faculty Board. The Head of School is a senior academic who is research active with astrong interest in the welfare of postgraduates. The Postgraduate Programmes Manager,working full time in the role, is responsible for day-to-day management of the School,deputising for the Head of School when appropriate. The current Head of School is ProfessorKevin B Nolan, BSc PhD DSc (NUI) FRSC, and the current Postgraduate ProgrammesManager is Dr Helen McVeigh. A full time secretary provides administrative support to theSchool.

The two primary committees working directly with the School are as follows:

the School of Postgraduate Studies Committee, which overseas the School activitiesthe Postgraduate Course Assessment Committee, which is responsible for approving new postgraduate courses for which a certificate, diploma or degree is awarded

Linking with Other Institutions

RCSI already has strong links with several Irish third level institutions, working closely withits partners to provide advanced postgraduate training courses. These links will be strengthened by targeted meetings with appropriate personnel to further develop opportunities for




37

postgraduate training including providing career development workshops. Opportunities toestablish inter-institutional Graduate Schools in specific research themed areas will be exploredincluding the delivery of training through electronic mechanisms such as Moodle, whereappropriate.RCSI primarily attracts postgraduates who have completed their undergraduate degreeselsewhere and therefore relies heavily on recruitment campaigns through standard advertising plus access to contacts at our peer institutions both nationally and internationally. Strengthenedlinks with these other institutions, plus hosting a Postgraduate Open Evening, will assist inrecruiting the best postgraduates.

7.2 Structured PhD Education in RCSI

While RCSI recognises that the core of PhD education is advancement of knowledge throughoriginal research this education must also facilitate acquisition of additional skills for personaland professional development and awareness.

In RCSI a structured PhD involves

taught modules (7) and laboratory rotations (3) or research assignments (3) in the

1st

year,3 years of full-time research on a chosen topic (years 2-4),

overseas University or Industry placement (up to 6 months in year 3)

ongoing professional and career development training.

The taught modules delivered with the aid of Moodle VLE and e-learning, provide training inresearch essentials, in scientific logic and reasoning, in communication skills, and in laboratorytechniques as well as providing essential knowledge in leading edge areas of biomedicalsciences. The laboratory rotations allow students to broaden their range of technical andresearch skills and allow exposure to different research environments thus helping informstudents about choice of PhD research. The ongoing professional and career development

provide ethics and social understanding, team working and leadership, enhancedcommunication skills, personal effectiveness / development, team-working & leadership,career management, entrepreneurship & innovation.The structured PhD aims to create a substantial cohort of biomedical scientists capable offollowing a diversity of careers in which they will contribute new knowledge and act asarticulate, well-rounded, researchers able to communicate their research to a range ofaudiences.RCSI is currently the lead institution in 4 inter-institutional structured PhD programmes, forwhich funding to the value of €5M euro per programme has been secured, and is a participantin 3 others, see Table.The structured PhD is strongly linked to the RCSI strategy in translational („bench to bedside‟)

research, the taught modules are delivered by clinicians and scientists and the researchcomponent involves joint supervision of projects by clinician/scientist teamsEach student is guided by a „mentor‟ other than the supervisor who is responsible, mainly but

not exclusively, for the non-academic welfare of the student for the duration of the PhD.

7.3 Funding Postgraduate Education

Currently the majority of our postgraduates are funded for three years by one of threemechanisms:




38

1 Principal Investigators (PIs) attract funding for a studentship and invite applications for the project defined in the grant application. External funding agencies that have funded postgraduate studentships at RCSI include Science Foundation Ireland; Health ResearchBoard; Enterprise Ireland; IRCSET; Wellcome Trust; Irish Aid (Dept of Foreign Affairs);the EU. Internal funding opportunities include those advertised by the RCSI ResearchCommittee.

2 RCSI attracts funding for PhD programmes and invite applications from individuals for avariety of research projects.

3 Students are self-funded either personally or through scholarships received outside RCSIfor which they are eligible to pursue a higher degree at RCSI.

It is our aspiration to progress to a 4-year PhD Programme for all our PhD students in a 1 + 3year model comprising taught courses, mostly in the first year, external examination of progress within the first two years and the inclusion of professional and career developmenttraining to prepare our postgraduates for a variety of work opportunities. We will examinemechanisms to attract the additional funding that will be required to achieve this goal.

7.4 Meeting National and European Objectives for Postgraduate Education

Irish Government policy on fourth level education proposes to double the number of postgraduates by 2012/2013 in line with recommendations in the OECD Review of HigherEducation in Ireland (2004)

http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/oecd_review_national_policies_education.doc .

RCSI plans to participate in this national strategy by recruiting world class postgraduates fromIreland, the EU and beyond. Postgraduates will be funded through significant grantapplications to relevant funding bodies and the School of Postgraduate Studies will work withthe relevant lead PIs in coordinating the postgraduate training for such funding proposals.The Bologna agreement (1999) seeks to achieve parity of qualifications and enhance the

provision of comparable degrees by cooperating in quality assurance of education andencouraging mobility within Europe. In order to meet these objectives, the School willintroduce a European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) for postgraduate degrees and, in the caseof higher degrees by research, the majority of credits will be allocated to the research thesis.Credits towards the postgraduate degree will be based on recommendations in the Bologna process (http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/socrates/ects/doc/guide_en.pdf) and inaccordance with the Irish National Framework for Qualifications (http://www.nfq.ie/nfq/en/).It is envisaged that in future, all PhD training will encompass taught courses, in both specificresearch topics and business topics, in addition to the substantial research project in a 4-year programme. It is recommended that postgraduate courses at the level of PhD should aim tocover the seven core academic competencies for PhDs outlined by the UK Research Councils

and AHRB in the Joint Skills Statement (2001).http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/ahrb/website/images/4_93335.doc

7.5 Co-tutelle PhD ProgrammesIn October 2008 RCSI and the National University of Ireland established a co-tutelle PhD programme with the Universities of Montpellier 1 and 2, the Centre National de la RechercheScientifique (CNRS) and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale(Inserm). This collaboration, which was officially launched by the Irish Ambassador in

http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/oecd_review_national_policies_education.doc

http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/socrates/ects/doc/guide_en.pdf

http://www.nfq.ie/nfq/en/

http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/ahrb/website/images/4_93335.doc

http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/ahrb/website/images/4_93335.doc

http://www.nfq.ie/nfq/en/

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January 2006 (http://www.rcsi.ie/index.jsp?1nID=93&nID=105&aID=2087), is the first of itskind between Ireland and France and will enable,(i) students and PIs to engage in collaborative research and training.(ii) sharing of research facilities.(iii)co-supervision by staff from the participating institutions of PhD students.(iv) joint conferences, seminars and other scientific events which would enhance the

quality of the co-tutelle experience(v) an exchange of students on PhD electives or short-study visits with due recognition

of course credits.(vi) adherence to international and/or national regulations and best practice codes for the

undertaking, supervision and examination of PhD theses.(vii) award of joint degrees reflecting the students‟ research efforts in the participating

institutions.

7.6 Postdoctoral Training and Career Development

The School has responsibility for coordinating training and career development opportunitiesfor postdoctoral fellows. Currently the School is working with the School of Healthcare

Management to develop a structured programme of Professional Development Training for postdocs. This programme will be rolled out in the 2007 – 2008 academic year.

Within the international context of NBIPIreland, RCSI is the co-ordinating Inistitution of theFP7 MarieCurie Career Enhancement and Mobility Programme (CEMP) .The mission of the NBIPIreland Career Enhancement and Mobility Programme (CEMP) is tosupport experienced research fellows at various stages of their career in attaining andstrengthening their career prospects to become independent investigators or senior scientists ineducation or industry. The CEMP funds and support post-doctoral research fellows wishing toundertake interdisciplinary research and training programmes in biophotonics and imagingapplied to cancer, cardiovascular and neuro-degenerative diseases.

7.7 Future Plans for Structured PhD Education in RCSI

(i) To move towards a 4-year structured programme for all PhD students (currently, becauseof funding constraints, some students are on 3-yearprogrammes).

(ii) To expand the co-tutelle programme EU-wide.(iii) To embark on professional PhD degree programmes aimed at practicing professionals

carrying out research part-time.



Table: Summary of current Structured PhD Programmes in RCSI

PhD Programme

Collaborating Institutions

(* indicates Lead

Institution)

Funding Agency

HRB PhD Scholars Programme in

Diagnostics and Therapeutics for HumanDisease

RCSI *, Beaumont

Hospital, DCU

HRB

HRB PhD Scholars Programme in IntegratedHealthcare: from Research to Policy andPractice

RCSI *,TCD,UCC HRB

PhD Programme in the Connecting HealthResearch in Africa and Ireland Consortium

RCSI *, TCD, NUIGThe Malaria Consortium(MC)HEIs in six Africancountries

Irish Aid(managed throughHEA)

The National Biophotonics and Imaging

Platform Ireland

RCSI *,DCU,

NUIM,DIT,UCC,UL, NUIG, CNRS(Montpelier)

HEA PRTLI

Cycle 4

The Clinician Scientist FellowshipProgramme

RCSI, TCD,UCD,UCC,NUIG

HEA PRTLICycle 4(coordinated byMMI)

The Irish Drug Delivery Network RCSI, UCD, ConwayInstitute *,TCD,UCC

SFI

PhD Programme in Bioinformatics andComputational Medicine

RCSI, UCD *,TCD IRCSET (GREP)

Structured MRes/PhD Programme inBiomedical Sciences ** RCSI HEA PRTLICycle 3

Career Enhancement and MobilityProgramme

RCSI – NBIPI FP7 MarieCurieCo-fund + HEAPRTLI5

20120214044327_rcsi research strategy (2009-2

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