10th November 2008

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The Intelligent Systems Research Centre at the Magee Campus of the University has been successful in winning over £1.5 million in research funding to consolidate its research into brain modelling and develop a new Computational Neuroscience Research Team. The funding will create new research jobs and attract high calibre researchers to the Magee campus. 

Computational neuroscience attempts to create models of the manner in which the brain processes, stores and utilises information. An improved understanding of neural processing is an essential pre-requisite for the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses as well as being important for the development of intelligent computational machines.

The Computational Neuroscience Research Team is one of five research projects at Ulster to benefit from the £7.7m allocated by the Department for Employment and Learning under its Cross Border R&D Funding Programme. All five projects will be undertaken in collaboration with partner universities in the Republic of Ireland. 

 Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre, Professor Martin McGinnity explains how the project brings together the skills, facilities and expertise of two prominent and complementary research centres - the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC), at Magee and Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN), at Trinity College Dublin. 

“The project - which will create additional sustainable research capacity - will address the study of brain research from what would traditionally be considered two diverse ends of the research spectrum, with the ISRC addressing the problem from an engineering and computing perspective and TCIN from a psychological, neuroscientific and medical approach. This project will allow us to integrate our advanced computational intelligent systems expertise with the leading edge neuroscience work being performed at Trinity. 

This recent allocation of funding will us help underpin our existing research base by attracting more excellent researchers to Magee, which in turn will have a positive impact on the north west’s economy. There are currently approximately 60 researchers working within the ISRC at Magee. As a result of this funding,  by early 2009 we expect to have an additional three Research Fellows, six Associate Researchers and three PhD students, with the appointment of a new Professor of Computational Neuroscience to follow by March 2009.”

The ISRC has been involved in previous collaborative research projects with TCD and other universities but this will be the first to focus specifically on computational neuroscience.

“The project will assist us in our attempts to develop more accurate computational models of the brain. In the longer term it is hoped that the our research will make a contribution to a better understanding of brain disease, such as Alzheimer’s Disease - the most common cause of dementia - and depression. There will also be a focus on the development of significant Intellectual Property to benefit the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries, and other nascent industries including neuroinformatics and neurorobotics.”

Welcoming the funding, Professor McGinnity said it recognised the growing international reputation of the research being carried out at the Magee campus. “Our work is multi-disciplinary, involving computer science, electronic engineering, mathematics, psychology and neuroscience. This funding is an important step in creating a substantial body of internationally recognised, leading edge researchers in the city, with positive benefits for the region and the island of Ireland as a whole.”

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young