Garden of the TCD School of Botany. Image: Trinity College Dublin
The herbarium in TCD is one of only two substantial herbaria in Ireland and contains around 400,000 plant specimens, providing researchers opportunities to track global biodiversity trends, assess the impact of climate change, and inform conservation efforts. A restoration and digitisation project to upgrade and safeguard the herbarium in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) was announced today (8 March) by Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform Malcolm Noonan, TD. The funding of €1.5m will provide state-of-the-art physical infrastructure and enable the digitisation of the herbarium’s 400,000 plant specimens and books to protect them and to ensure they are accessible to the international research community. “I am delighted to be able to support this project via a very significant funding contribution through the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS),” Minister Noonan said. The curator of the herbarium, Prof Trevor Hodkinson, said that it “has one of the largest collections of plant specimens in Ireland”. “Together with our unique collection of books, some of which are more than 500 years old, our specimens provide a detailed record of Ireland’s natural history and contribute to our knowledge of the world’s biodiversity.”
From humble beginnings in the early 18th century when Sir Hans Sloane presented TCD with a ‘thick folio’ of dried plant specimens, to physician and botanist Thomas Coulter’s collection of 20,000 specimens in 1835, to the present day as one of the largest university herbaria in the world, the herbarium contains irreplaceable scientific information that allows researchers to track global biodiversity trends, assess the impact of climate change, and inform conservation efforts. “At Trinity we are committed to addressing the biodiversity and climate crises by delivering cutting edge research that informs policy and practice, and embeds these issues in the curriculum, preparing future generations of leaders,” said Prof Jane Stout, TCD vice-president for biodiversity and climate action sustainability. The herbarium contains a variety of samples from Australia, North America, Mexico, South Africa and Thailand. It includes specimens collected by early Irish botanist Ellen Hutchins and by Charles Darwin. TCD is co-funding the project by supporting three fully funded PhD positions in Irish biodiversity, which will be co-designed with the NPWS. Director of nature conservation at the NPWS Ciara Carberry said: “The partnership between the college and the NPWS will set the restoration and digitisation project on a sustainable footing and make sure the herbarium can be enjoyed by generations of students and scientists to come.”
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Historic Trinity herbarium to grow with €1.5m government funding

European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane has indicated for the first time that interest rates will rise again in May, in addition to a hike widely expected to happen next week. It means the ECB interest rate now looks set to be at least 3.25pc by May, the next scheduled meeting of policy makers after March 16th. He made the speech during a speech to students and staff at Trinity College Dublin on the theme of assessing underlying inflation in the euro area, a measure that strips out volatile elements of inflation to determine the essential economic effect. “The current information on underlying inflation pressures suggests that it will be appropriate to raise rates further beyond our March meeting, while the exact calibration beyond March should reflect the information contained in the upcoming macroeconomic projections, together with the incoming data on inflation and the operation of the monetary transmission mechanism,” he said. The ECB has already been widely expected to hike rates next week at the regular March meeting of its Governing Council to 3pc on March 16. Prof Lane is regarded as among the more dovish ECB figures so any indication he expects rates to rise again will be seen as especially telling. The central bank’s target is to get inflation back down around 2pc after it spiked to record highs late last year. Prof Lane said inflation is coming down. A decline in headline inflation means the increase in the cost of living is now lower than expected in the December ECB staff projections, he said. With less upward pressure on households that should translate into less pressure from workers for wage increases, which is a central factor in the determination of underlying inflation. However elements of underlying inflation remain high. That includes goods prices which are up despite freeing up of the post Covid bottle necks that affected the supply of many goods. Prof Lane said the current strength of goods inflation suggests that the easing of bottlenecks is not yet feeding through into retail prices. “While the improvement in supply bottlenecks can be expected to alleviate one source of upward pressure on prices, it is not yet clear whether the upward impact of earlier supply chain problems on final consumer prices has fully played out,” he said. Food inflation is also high, he said. “Compared to the peaks during the re-opening phase of last year, the latest observations point to weaker pressures from the energy commodities, non-energy and non-food commodities, global and domestic economic activity and supply side bottlenecks. By contrast, stronger pressures are indicated by the indicators for food-related costs and labour market developments, in particular from the tight labour market and from wage growth.”
The range of factors feeding into inflation means that for the ECB the task of cooling the pressure on households and businesses having to monitor a mix of its forecasts, new data and the mechanisms for monetary policy transmission into the real economy. Most Watched

Philip Lane says ECB rate hikes will not end in March

€400,000 has been committed to the development of a national skills platform to help close Ireland's digital skills gap. The project will be undertaken by a partnership of public and private organisations, led by the Learnovate future of work and learning research hub based at Trinity College Dublin, along with technology multinational Cisco and Skillnet Ireland . The project is also backed by The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and IDA Ireland, and is envisaged as being significant for meeting the needs of Ireland's future economy and society. Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris on Tuesday launched the first phase of the collaborative research project, which the partners hope will inform the development of a prototype of the skills platform. “As a knowledge-based economy, the development of digital and data skills is of huge strategic importance for the country as all sectors nationally and locally prepare for digital transformation and a new age of skills requirements," Minister Harris said. "I am privileged to launch this unique research project, led by Learnovate, which is looking at developing a national skills platform prototype to assist Ireland to continue in its aim to develop a workforce that is technologically advanced, highly-skilled and ready for the future of work.”
The prototype platform will provide a self-assessment tool to allow individual users to analyse their own capabilities, standardise digital skills required for different job roles, identify skill gaps for a particular role and recommend relevant learning course journey maps. It will also provide a roadmap for career progression by detailing the skills they would require to move into more senior roles. The aim is that some of the platform’s key components will include:
An engine that matches digital/data skills to specific roles
A self-assessment tool for core digital/data skills
An ‘in-the-flow-of-work’ learning solution to target gaps. Following prototype development, the platform may be developed as a global skills assessment and development platform. Nessa McEniff, director of Leanovate, said: "Learnovate is excited to partner with Cisco and Skillnet Ireland to deliver a research project that so closely aligns with our research agenda on the future of work and learning and helps cement Ireland's global status as leaders in the development of the next generation workforce.”
Shane Heraty, managing director of Cisco Ireland & Scotland, added: "We urgently need to reskill and upskill the nation to power the next decade of digital innovation, boost the digital economy, and improve lives across Ireland. "For real momentum in addressing this challenge, collaboration between industry and government is crucial, and that is why Cisco is delighted to be partnering with Learnovate and Skillnet Ireland in this initiative.”
Mark Jordan, chief strategy officer at Skillnet Ireland, said the platform would "help address the shortage of digital and data skills and how Irish businesses go about developing their people, while using technology to transform upskilling delivery methods. "By bringing together the key industry, higher education and research players, including IDA Ireland, this partnership with Learnovate and Cisco will lead to greater capacity for innovation across all sectors and increased opportunities for digital upskilling for Ireland’s workforce.”
Breda O'Toole, head of talent, transformation and innovation at IDA Ireland, said data skills would become fundamental to businesses as they become more data-driven, and that investment is essential to maintaining Ireland's reputation for high-quality talent. Photo: Mark Jordan (left), Simon Harris (second left), Nessa McEniff (centre) and Shane Heraty (right).

€400,000 platform to close digital skills gap in development

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THEKLA BEERE was mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in three successive elections — in 1976, 1983, and 1990. It is a pity she didn’t run, at least once, because then the contribution of this exceptional woman, moderniser, trailblazing public servant and founder of An Óige, might be better known. She was the first woman to head a government department, appointed as secretary of the new Department of Transport and Power in 1959. By then, she was accustomed to being the only woman in a roomful of men. At Trinity College, she was the only woman in her law class when she graduated with first-class honours in 1923. Four years later, she was again the only woman in her class, so to speak; this time as a passenger on board a first-class flight from Boston to Ireland returning home after spending two formative years in the United States. She later recalled her time in Jazz Age America and spoke of learning the Charleston and the Black Bottom, and even dancing the tango on Broadway. That was the exciting social side of two years’ study and travel during which she met US president Calvin Coolidge. She was less than impressed. In a letter home, she wrote: “Cal is the most wizened, miserable looking specimen you can imagine — without a spark of life or animation. He lived up to his reputation for silence. Our conversation was brief — and uninteresting.”
That joyful snippet is included in Dr Anna Bryson’s fascinating biography No Coward Soul, which traces Thekla Beere’s adventures across north America after winning the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial scholarship in 1925. She had joined the Irish civil service the year before, entering as a temporary Grade III woman clerk, “a very lowly form of life” she later said of the position. She was promoted within six weeks, though, and soon afterwards was on her way to America on an unpaid career break. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She joined more than 1,000 students from 66 nations and travelled extensively. Dr Bryson offers this enlightening summary: “She heard the anti-fascist campaigner, Salvemini, take on Mussolini; sat in the US senate while the Prohibition Act was being debated; and in San Francisco witnessed one of the first lie detector machines in operation.”
As well as meeting the US president, she also met the US attorney general and was much more impressed by him. There were job offers, too, and she might well have stayed in the US; another talented emigrant lost to us but, instead, she was deeply committed to an emerging Ireland. “My determination had always been that I was going to live and work in Ireland. I formed that determination in my childhood before I went to school,” she said. She spent that childhood in Westmeath and later Longford and Meath. Born in 1901, her father, a Church of Ireland vicar, Rev Francis Beere, chose her unusual Christian name, apparently inspired by his studies of Greek at Trinity College, according to Dr Bryson. Thekla Beere, however, had a difficult and lonely start in life. Her early years were marked by chronic ill health and she was schooled at home by her mother Lucie, a rewarding, though isolating, experience. Her only sibling, Joy, arrived in 1906 and by the time Thekla was 14 she was well enough to attend Alexandra College in Dublin. She was a natural scholar, winning prizes and accolades at second and third level. It wasn’t easy, though, as money was tight. During her college years, Thekla supplemented the money she got from her father by teaching French, dressmaking, and working as housemistress at Alexandra College. The latter made for a punishing daily routine. “It involved rising at 6.30am, supervising breakfast, taking students for a walk, monitoring study, ordering books and music, filing lost property, and organising plays,” she told Frances O’Rourke in an interview in 1975. In exchange, she got board and a laundry allowance of half a crown per week. Double-jobbing continued to be a feature of her life. In the 1930s, her civil service job was not enough to support her and her widowed mother, so she took a job lecturing in statistics in the B Comm module at Trinity College Dublin. Breaking the mould
In doing so, she shattered another glass ceiling by becoming the first female lecturer in statistics in Ireland. She was also something of a mould-breaker in the early civil service. As a woman and a protestant, she was in the minority. She later said she strongly believed protestants had received a fair deal in the new Free State, although the same could not be said for women. Back in circulation: Thekla Beere stamp
In the 1930s, Mary Sheehy Kettle, sister of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, said: “Women from their entry [into the civil service] until they reach the ages of 45 or 50 are looked upon as if they are loitering with the intent to commit a felony — the felony in this case being marriage.”
Thekla later mused that the service just wasn’t sure what to do with women: “They hadn’t any women at that level ... and so they just weren’t sure they ought to promote me.”
Nevertheless, by the time she was promoted she was, to quote Dr Bryson, acknowledged as an “expert on shipping, railways and labour issues”, as well as being a skilful negotiator and manager. Mind you, another three decades would pass before a second woman was appointed head of a government department. Now, at least, Thekla Beere is back in the limelight with the issue next week of An Post stamps celebrating four women in public life. The other three are first female president of Ireland Mary Robinson, Free State senator Jennie Wyse Power, and first woman chief justice Susan Denham. Chair of the Philatelic Advisory Committee, Felix M Larkin, thinks the selection embraces all aspects of the concept of ‘public life’. The historian and former public servant said: "I think the honourees are accordingly very well chosen. We were happy to recommend them.”
Each of the women are distinguished in other ways, as well as being emblematic of women’s achievements in public life." Here we are, almost out of space, and I haven’t yet mentioned Beere’s lasting contribution as founder and president of An Óige and, perhaps most importantly, her role as first chair of the Commission on the Status of Women which looked at ending the marriage bar and introducing equal pay and maternity leave. The Beere Report, published in 1972, was a real watershed in Irish women’s rights. Speaking in the Senate at the time, Mary Robinson said she “regarded this report as the most important social document in recent Irish history”. It’s fitting, then, that Mary Robinson should feature alongside Thekla in the forthcoming stamp series. Unlike the former president, the might-have-been president Thekla Beere has fallen from public consciousness. How wonderful to see her back in circulation. Read More

Clodagh Finn: Stamp of approval for the pioneering Thekla Beere

MBA programmes delivered by Trinity College Dublin and UCD Smurfit Business School have both been ranked in the top 30 MBA programmes in Europe in the latest Financial Times ranking. Ranked 87th globally, Trinity’s full-time MBA placed well in the categories of ‘employed at three months’, ‘international mobility’, ‘value for money’, ‘international faculty’, ‘female students’, ‘ESG and net zero teaching rank’ and ‘carbon footprint’. Dr Radu Dimitriu, MBA director in TCD, commented: “The fact that our full-time MBA is now ranked as top 100 worldwide by the Financial Times (1st in Ireland, 26th in Europe and 87th in the world) is a testament to the quality and relevance of our education, the innovation of the MBA curriculum, and not least the quality of both of our MBA learners and our Trinity MBA faculty.”
Professor Andrew Burke, Dean and Chair of Trinity Business School, said the business school has nearly trebled in size in the past eight years. UCD’s MBA programme was placed No.94 overall in the FT ranking, which is topped by Columbia Business School in America. MBA programmes at European business schools Insead in France and Iese Business School in Italy are ranked by the FT ahead of US MBA programmes at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Northwestern, Yale, Duke and MIT Sloan. The top ranked MBA programme in the UK is London Business school. FT research found that the weighted average salary for UCD MBAs is $115,000 and $114,000 for TCD MBAs. Ranked 87th globally, Trinity’s full-time MBA placed well in the categories of ‘employed at three months’, ‘international mobility’, ‘value for money’, ‘international faculty’, ‘female students’, ‘ESG and net zero teaching rank’ and ‘carbon footprint’. In Europe, the best paid MBAs graduate from Insead at $198k, SDA Bocconi School of Management $193k, Iese Business School $181k,  HEC Paris $172k, IMD $171k, IE Business School $165k, and Esade Business School $157k.

Trinity and UCD make top 100 MBA ranking

IBM (NYSE: IBM) manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. The company was founded in 1911 and is based in Armonk, Newyork.

Juan Bernabe-Moreno , Director of IBM , Ireland said : `` This agreement reinforces the close partnership between IBM and Trinity College Dublin Dublin including research in accelerated discovery , and an intent to extend our pre-PhD programme to help pursue a joint research agenda to tackle some of the world 's biggest challenges .

Trinity and IBM strengthen collaborative research and education links

Electricity Supply Board (ESB) was established in 1927 as a statutory corporation in the Republic of Ireland under the Electricity (Supply) Act 1927. ESB operates right across the electricity market: from generation, through transmission and distribution to supply. In addition, we extract further value at certain points along this chain: supplying gas, using our networks to carry fibre for telecommunications, developing public charging infrastructure and more.

Electricity Supply Board

`` The research conducted on this project will be led by the Trinity in partnership with the ESB and the micro-mobility providers .

Trinity partners with ESB in new pilot e-bike project in Dublin suburbs - News & Events

Artelo Biosciences is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to applying biopharma discipline in leveraging past research and science to accelerate the development and commercialization of a diverse portfolio of endocannabinoid system modulating therapeutics.

Artelo Biosciences

Artelo Biosciences Chief Science Officer and Trinity College Dublin are expanding their collaboration to study the cell biology of Fatty Acid Binding Protein inhibition in cancer .

Pharma Tech Outlook | Friday, April 15, 2022.
Artelo Enters Second Collaboration With Trinity College Dublin For Tumor Treatments.

Tangent is a creative technology agency that supports the clients with content marketing, UI/UX design, web development and web design.

Tangent

HSE Digital Transformation provides digital health solutions. It supports people's health journey from hospitals, to the community and home and helps in medical cost management. The company was founded in 2019 and is based in Dublin 8, Ireland.

Date	10/14/2018
Round	Loan
Amount	$115.9M
Investors	European Investment Bank
Valuation
Revenue	$0.00B ((9.99x)) FY 1234
Sources	1

First funding	10/14/2018
Last Funding	10/14/2018
Investor	European Investment Bank
Rounds	1 Loan
Board Seats
Type	Investment Bank
Location	Luxembourg

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