Posted on: 16 July 2008
The Wellcome Trust has announced funding of €1.25 million (£1 million) to support the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin. This is the first major capital award for public engagement with science given by the Wellcome Trust in the Republic of Ireland .
The Science Gallery which is housed in the Naughton Institute at TCD, is a flagship national initiative which probes major scientific issues through a programme of innovative and interactive exhibitions, workshops, events and debate.
Clare Matterson, the Wellcome Trust’s Director of Medicine, Society and History, said: “This is an important and innovative gallery, engaging young adults with science and technology, which the Wellcome Trust is delighted to be supporting.”
The Wellcome Trust funding will go toward the development of innovative projects to engage the public with biomedical science. Upcoming exhibits include ‘PAY ATTENTION!’, part of the LAB in the Gallery series which transports a working neuroscience research laboratory into a public space. Visitors will get the opportunity to participate as human subjects in experiments on attention and meet with researchers carrying out cutting edge science research in Ireland . ‘PLAGUE’, an upcoming exhibition exploring the nature of epidemics, involves Trinity College immunologists Luke O’Neill and Cliona Farrelly and will launch in 2009.
The Director of Science Gallery, Dr Michael John Gorman, added: “The support of the Wellcome Trust is a major international endorsement of the vision of the Science Gallery to open science up to debate and dialogue with all other areas of human culture.”
The Wellcome Trust joins Ulster Bank, Dell, Google, ICON, PACCAR and Wyeth corporate partners of Science Gallery.
Over 40,000 people have visited Science Gallery exhibitions and events since its doors opened on February 1st of this year, TechnoThreads , the current exhibition, asks what happens when a scientist meets a fashion designer and looks at the relationship between science, technology and fashion. TechnoThreads runs until July 25th. For more information see www.sciencegallery.com
Notes to Editors:
1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK . It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending around £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing. http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
