The Trinity College Dublin team DRIVE, led by Dr. Séamus O’Shaughnessy and Dr. Daniel Trimble from the Department of Mechanical. Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering, with Societal Impact Champion Dr Karl Brown, EV automotive industry expert, has won a prize award from the first-ever National 2050 Challenge Fund. The team received funding for their innovative solution to a problem in Ireland's Green Transition.

What is the Winning Project?

The DRIVE team's project, which won the 2050 Challenge, focuses on improving the performance and safety of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. Their solution uses a dielectric coolant that directly touches and manages the temperature of every cell in a battery pack. This approach leads to:

  • Increased battery performance

  • Longer battery lifespan

  • Safer battery operation

The National Challenge Fund

The National Challenge Fund encourages researchers to identify and solve problems related to Ireland’s Green Transition and Digital Transformation. The Fund is backed by the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The Trinity College Dublin team was one of two inaugural prize winners, with the other being University College Dublin's AI2Peat team.

Minister James Lawless said: “I am delighted to announce the first two teams to be awarded prize funding under the National Challenge Fund. This is a significant milestone for the programme, which has supported 96 research teams since its launch in 2022. I congratulate the DRIVE and AI2Peat teams on their success in securing prize funding.”

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO, Research Ireland, said: “I am delighted to see the first round of the National Challenge Fund advance to the prize phase. The teams announced today have successfully progressed their projects through three rounds of this competitive funding programme to achieve their prize awards. I congratulate them on this achievement and look forward to seeing their projects deliver ambitious solutions over the coming years.”

EU Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath, said: “The National Challenge Fund shows how strategic EU funding can make a real difference. In this case, support comes from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The prize funding announced today will help the winning research teams further develop their solutions to major challenges on the road to a more sustainable future. Both Ireland and the European Union are committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2050. These projects will play a key role in that effort – supporting the shift to a climate-neutral society and helping to build a better future for everyone.”

Team Leader's Reaction

Dr. Séamus O’Shaughnessy, the lead of the DRIVE team, expressed his delight at winning the prize. He credited the team's hard work and research over the past two and a half years for their success. O'Shaughnessy noted that the support from Research Ireland over the next two years will allow the team to further develop their solution and prepare it for industrial applications. He emphasised the importance of their work in meeting the needs of current and next-generation battery technologies.

Above: Minister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science James Lawless, Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO Research Ireland, and Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Research for Society, with members of the National Challenge Fund Prize Teams.