Two Trinity College Dublin scientists, one researching the printing of supercapacitors and the other looking at rebuilding damaged cartilage in the body, have been awarded "Proof of Concept" funds. The AMBER (the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded materials science centre, hosted in TCD) researchers have been announced as recipients of its grants from the European Research Council (ERC). This funding will provide Prof. Valeria Nicolosi and Prof. Fergal O'Brien with E150,000 in funding each over 18 months to help them bridge the gap between their existing frontier research and its commercial applications. Prof. Nicolosi has won top-up funding for her project entitled 'Ink-Jet printed supercapacitors based on 2D nanomaterials'. This is the third grant that she has received from the ERC to date. Prof. Nicolosi's nanotechnology project will hone in on enabling new 2D-based nanomaterials to one day potentially pioneer ultra-thin, flexible supercapacitors manufacturing for the aerospace and automotive industry. Prof. O'Brien's funding will help to establish the innovation potential of his original idea for which he already received E2 million in ERC funding in 2009. His project, entitled 'miRNA-activated Scaffold Technologies for Cartilage Regeneration', is focused on developing an advanced therapeutic for cartilage repair. Damage to the cartilage on joints can result in osteoarthritis which affects millions of people worldwide. "At the moment there is huge societal need to move towards sustainable and renewable energy resources. As a result, we are seeing an increase in renewable energy production from sun and wind, as well as the development of electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles. Energy storage systems like batteries and super capacitors are starting to play a larger part in our lives. Unfortunately, accidents can occur due to the high corrosion, toxicity and flammability of the electrolytes used, coupled with the high instability of lithium under normal conditions. We expect the development of high performing, ultra-thin, ultra-light, non-hazardous and chemically stable energy storage devices will have huge societal and economic impact in all these sectors," Prof. Valeria Nicolosi, Professor at the School of Physics and the School of Chemistry, Trinity College Dublin and Principal Investigator at AMBER. Prof. Fergal O'Brien, Deputy Director of AMBER and Deputy Director of Research and Head of Tissue Engineering Research Group in the Royal College of Surgeons, said, "I am delighted to be awarded the "Proof of Concept” grant. This project is focused on developing an advanced therapeutic for cartilage repair. We proposed to combine a biomaterial from my lab designed specifically to support cartilage cells with a form of gene therapy, called micro-ribonucleic acids (microRNA), which can enhance the genes associated with healthy tissue, while blocking the ones associated with disease." For more visit www.businessworld.ie