6 minute read
Welcome
The past year was an unprecedented time for Bernal, in which the long-awaited international quality review process for the Institute took place. This was an overwhelming success, in which our commitment to talent development through mentorship and investment was internationally recognised.
KPIs and performance
As an international Institute, Bernal is benchmarked against leading similar entities globally. Strict key performance indicators (KPIs) are measured against best in class and reported quarterly. The KPIs agreed by the external Bernal Supervisory Board are in the areas of: • Publications • People (principal investigators and PhDs in supervision) • Commercial outputs • Funding awards • European Research Council (ERC) applications and awards.
Data shows that Bernal achieved a record number of publications in AY2021 (337). This is an 11% increase from the previous record year (AY2020) and a 116% increase over the five years since the Institute’s formation (156). In terms of quality, there is a 71% increase in top decile publications over those five years and a 53% increase in 2020. The Institute’s publications represent a sizeable majority of Faculty of Science & Engineering’s total output. PhDs in supervision remain consistent at 2.6 per principal investigator (PI). Bernal strives to increase this ratio to over 3.0 but the dearth of PhD funding programmes nationally and internationally, as well as the attractiveness of industry for graduates, mean that growing PhD numbers is a well-recognised challenge for universities globally. Bernal continues to work with all stakeholders nationally and locally in UL to address this.
All commercial targets have been met or exceeded (licences, options, assignments, patent applications and patents granted), with the exception of spinout companies created. Confidence is high that this latter target will be met, as all other outputs in this area are strong and the post-pandemic landscape is more conducive to such activity. Funding in AY2021 of €9.7M is acceptable given international conditions (pandemic and interim-period Horizon 2020/Horizon Europe) and we see a ramp-up of this occurring already, with over €9M achieved in the first two quarters of AY2022 alone. The undoubted KPI highlight of the year was the doubling of the ERC awards in Bernal in 2021 (from two to four), the measure of prestige for all research institutes globally.
International quality peer review
In 2021, the first ever international quality peer review of the Bernal Institute took place. This was a resounding success, which vindicated the UL decision to invest significantly in Bernal, while also commending the Institute’s performance to date. There were also some recommendations for Bernal and UL to work together to further enhance the Institute’s success. Highlights from the quality review group (QRG) report are summarised as follows: The QRG was highly impressed with the development in research infrastructure and research culture at all levels since the inception of the Institute. This has very clearly led to significant improvements in the quality of research outputs and the ability to attract important national and, increasingly in the future, international funding. The QRG commends: • The clearly articulated ambitious strategy of the Bernal Institute, which builds on its research strengths and is underpinned by appropriate quantitative KPI measures and risk management procedures • The highly professional, committed and effective
Bernal leadership team. This success was due to a cross-community effort by all stakeholders, within and external to Bernal, who engaged in the preparation and review process, as coordinated by the internal quality team.
Dr Jacky Sorrel Bouanga Boudiombo, PhD student Alice Parkes and Dr Maryam Karimijafari, Process Engineering Cluster
Talent development
The year 2021 also represented a landmark, whereby Bernal’s commitment to talent development through mentorship and investment reaped rewards. The Institute’s early-career researchers won no less than two highly competitive and prestigious ERC Starting Grants. Four Bernal-based applicants were invited to the final interview stage. Bernal researchers were also awarded six Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Pathway Grants (personal funding and funding for a PhD studentship) and five postdoctoral fellowships – two by the European Commission (the highly prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship) and three by the Irish Research Council. This was in parallel with the continued success of our mid-career researchers and research leaders, especially in consolidating infrastructure and expanding translational research with our industry partners. The bar diagram in Fig.1 (LHS) shows how the h-index distribution shifts from 2017 to 2022. The X-axis shows the h-index of the Bernal members in intervals of 5 h-index units with the number of researchers with said h-index measured on the Y-axis. The data is measured periodically (6month or yearly). The diagram on the RHS shows the shift of the mean h-index year on year to be approximately two points (dH/dt= 1.6) leading to a remarkable 50–60 points for a 25–30 year academic career. This benchmarks very well internationally. Typical h-indices for ERC grant applications are indicated in the blue bars with the number of Bernal applicants since 2018 per category included.
Fig. 1 Bernal members development of h-index distribution (left panel) and its average (right panel) during 2017–2022, based on Scopus data
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18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2017
members
2022
0-5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30-35 35-40 45-50 >50 ERC Starter (10) ERC Consolidator(3) ERC Advanced (4) 3/’17 (62) 9/’17 (61) 3/’18 (73) 5/’19 (66) 1/ ‘20 (78) 10/’20 (63) 4/’21 (66) 4/’22 (66)
24 (dH/dt=1.6/yr)
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18
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Mar-17Sep-17Mar-18 May-19 Jan-20Oct-20Apr-21Apr-22
The future
Looking beyond 2021, the strategic focus is firmly on grand challenges in health, energy and the environment and on achieving clear societal impacts with our (inter)national academic and industrial partners. The urgency of the climate challenge related to carbon emissions for vital Irish economic sectors (agro-food; materials and their circularity; and transport and housing/storage of people, data and goods) is becoming increasingly evident. ‘Towards a Circular Economy’ was selected as the theme for the 2022 Bernal Research Day, with a strong contribution by Minister of State, Ossian Smyth, who has specific responsibility in this area. Recognising the Atlantic offshore renewable energy potential at our (Shannon Estuary) doorstep, Bernal is significantly inspired by the Shannon Scheme (Ardnacrusha) of the 1920s and is committed to exploring contributions to an emerging national-level plan ‘Shannon Scheme 2.0’. The 2020–22 pandemic also highlighted significant health challenges. As frontline hospitals fought the Covid-19 pandemic, cancer services were cancelled or postponed. The Bernal Institute is exploring how its core strengths (in structured materials research such as imaging, biomaterials design, modelling and manufacturing of (bio)pharmaceutical materials, and delivery devices) can contribute to such challenges. Within the Limerick Digital Cancer Research Centre, Bernal’s aforementioned capabilities complement other UL strengths in data science (MACSI), software engineering (Lero) and smart manufacturing (Confirm). Together, these can build an innovative, digitally empowered, multidisciplinary framework for cancer research. Looking towards 2022 and beyond, the strong, coherent and relevant Advanced Structured Materials (AStruM or ‘star’) agenda is now more relevant than ever.
Luuk van der Wielen
Director
Jon O’Halloran
General Manager
Copper Silicide Fireworks by Rebecca Forde 2021 Bernal Institute Research Image of the Year
