HHS Convenes the Fourth Meeting of the Steering Group of the U.S.-Ireland Research and Development Partnership

From left, Richard Buckius, Ph.D., Assistant Director of the Directorate for Engineering, NSF; Dr. Killian Halpin, Retired Director of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Forfas, Republic of Ireland, Co-Chair; Acting HHS Deputy Secretary Eric D. Hargan, Esq., Co-Chair; Professor Fabian Charles Monds, Retired Chairman of Invest Northern Ireland, Co-Chair; Dr. Patrick Fottrell, Executive Chairman of Science Foundation Ireland; Dr. Hugh Cormican, Managing Director of Andor Technology, Northern Ireland; and Professor Peter Gregson, President and Vice Chancellor of Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Not pictured, joining by videoconference, was the Director of HHS/NIH, the Honorable Elias Zerhouni, M.D., and the President of Dublin City University, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynksi.

April 18, 2007 – The Acting Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Eric D. Hargan, Esq., co-chaired the Fourth Meeting of the Steering Group of the U.S.-Ireland Research and Development (R&D) Partnership today in Washington, D.C. Steering Group Members from the United States include the Assistant Director of the Directorate for Engineering of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), Richard Buckius, Ph.D., and the Director of the HHS National Institutes of Health (NIH, The Honorable Elias Zerhouni, M.D. 

The U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership arose from the U.S.-Ireland Business Summit, held in 2002. The partnership, officially launched in 2006, represents an alliance between the United States, Ireland, and Northern Ireland to increase the level of collaborative R&D among researchers and industry across the three jurisdictions, to generate innovation for the marketplace and lead to improvements in healthcare, disease prevention and other technologies.

The objective of the U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership is to promote tri-jurisdictional, integrated, peer-reviewed research projects that will address research challenges in the four priority areas the Steering Committee has identified: diabetes, cystic fibrosis, nanotechnology, and sensor technology.  The Steering Committee will finalize the process for receiving research applications from the three jurisdictions in the next few weeks, which will pave the way for concrete scientific collaborations through the partnership.

Last revised: October 11, 2007