NanoStruct-X project awarded funding under Research Ireland Infrastructure Programme

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD, has announced an investment of €17 million to support nine key infrastructure projects through the Research Ireland Infrastructure Programme. 

The funding will enable the installation of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities across the country, strengthening Ireland’s research capacity in strategically important areas. The programme is designed to ensure that Irish researchers can access the specialised equipment needed to compete on the global stage. 

‘NanoStruct-X: Democratising advanced materials characterisation with lab-based synchtrotron-style tools’ is one of the nine funded projects. Led by Professor Serena Cussen, UCD School of Chemistry, with co-investigators Dr Veronica Sofianos, UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, and Dr Justin Henthorn, UCD School of Chemistry, the project will receive €1,361,069 in funding.

Announcing the investment, Minister Lawless said, “Today’s Research Ireland infrastructure announcement further underscores our strong commitment to ensuring Ireland’s research community has access to world-class facilities. These nine projects will strengthen national capability in areas vital to Ireland’s future, including advanced materials, AI, and MedTech. This investment will equip researchers across the country with the tools they need to remain at the forefront of global innovation and strengthen Ireland’s long-term competitiveness.”

Welcoming the announcement, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO of Research Ireland, added, “We are enabling researchers across the country to pursue ambitious ideas, deepen collaboration and accelerate breakthrough discoveries by providing access to truly world-class infrastructure. The awards announced today are a key step in delivering on Research Ireland’s strategy to strengthen national research capacity, future-proofing our research ecosystem and ensuring Ireland remains a global leader in high-impact research.”

The NanoStruct-X project

Developing next-generation technologies in energy, healthcare and manufacturing requires detailed understanding of how atoms are arranged in advanced materials. Traditional methods like powder diffraction fall down when structural order is confined to the nanometer scale, as is the case for materials key to emerging technologies such as nanoparticles, disordered materials, and amorphous drugs. Currently, Irish researchers rely on competitive, limited access to international synchrotron facilities to study these materials.

NanoStruct-X closes this gap by democratising access to advanced characterisation with lab-based synchrotron-style tools, bringing high-resolution structural analysis within immediate reach of the Irish research community. These instruments will allow researchers to study materials under varying conditions of temperature, pressure and reactive/inert gases to observe/track atomic arrangement, including examining batteries in action and identifying structures giving rise to new functionalities. This investment marks a major step toward world-leading capability in materials research, enabling discoveries previously dependent on access to large international facilities.

Project PI Professor Serena Cussen, Full Professor at UCD School of Chemistry, said, "I’m really excited about what this will enable for Irish researchers. There are strong research communities here in areas like energy, catalysis and pharmaceuticals, but until now access to these kinds of advanced measurements has been largely overseas. Having this capability in Ireland means we can uncover how materials behave at the most fundamental level, whether that’s designing better batteries, developing sustainable catalysts, understanding pharmaceuticals or even preserving cultural heritage, and translate that knowledge much more quickly into real-world impact.”

Dr Veronica Sofianos, co-investigator on the project and Associate Professor at UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering added, "Nanostructure X will enable us to characterise complex nanomaterials without needing synchrotron facilities, accelerating structure–property insights. This will support sustainable green hydrogen production and long-term renewable energy storage, speeding pathways to commercialisation."

For more information on the awards and recipients visit the (opens in a new window)Research Ireland website.