WIT Picks Up 4 Nominations in the 2020 Pharma Industry Awards

Posted on October 1, 2020

PMBRC shortlisted in three categories, while Department of Science picked up a further nomination in this year's awards

Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) featured prominently in the shortlist for the 2020 Pharma Industry Awards picking up a total of 4 nominations. The Pharmaceutical and Molecular Biotechnology Research Centre (PMBRC) was shortlisted for Research Centre of the Year, R&D Achievement and Project of the Year. The Department of Science in WIT picked up a further nomination in the Pharma Education & Training category for its M.Sc. in Analytical Science with Quality Management. Since launching in 2014, the Pharma Industry Awards has established itself as the benchmark for excellence for those operating in Ireland's pharma industry. The PMBRC previously won the R&D Achievement award in 2017 and again in 2019.

Speaking of the news, PMBRC Manager Dr. Niall O'Reilly said: “we are delighted to be shortlisted for the Pharma Industry Awards this year. In particular we are pleased to be nominated in the Small Pharma Project of the Year category for the OcuDel project. This project led to the development of new technologies for the treatment of eye diseases and resulted in the spin out of OcuDel Ltd. from WIT last year. 2020 to date has been an interesting year with a number of projects kicking off in the past few months on the detection and treatment of COVID-19 and we look forward to playing our part in tackling this societal challenge in the year ahead”.

Course leaders for the M.Sc. in Analytical Science with Quality Management, Dr. Mike Kinsella and Dr Richie Ryan said: "We are delighted to have our flexible, part-time Masters shortlisted for this prestigious award. The topics covered in our programme were finalised with the aid of a comprehensive industry skills needs survey and we built the programme to be flexible to allow a student to take the full Masters or individual 10 credit level 9 Certificates in specific areas.”

The overall aim of the M.Sc. in Analytical Science with Quality Management programme is to produce graduates with the necessary knowledge, skills and expertise in analytical science and quality management. Another goal of the programme is that it will also confer on the graduates a set of personal and professional attributes that will allow them greater flexibility in the development of their own career options, over the span of their career.

For Dr. Peter McLoughlin, Head of School of Science and Computing at WIT, the 4 nominations underscore the strength of research and teaching at WIT in the (bio)pharmaceutical sciences. “We have built a strong reputation nationally and internationally for our programmes and research here at WIT while our graduates are in high demand within industry. We are particularly proud of the close relationship between research and teaching in the School which ultimately led to the development of the M.Sc. in Analytical Science with Quality Management programme”

The awards ceremony is planned for the 5^th November at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin, subject to COVID-19 guidelines.