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Professor Mark Boyle, Dr. John O'Connor and Seán Ó Foghlú of the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute, in conjunction with Maynooth University Research Development Office, are organising a series of seminars from September to November 2025. The seminar series explores practices in Research for Policy, giving researchers and the policy-makers an opportunity to discuss their experiences of working together and to reflect on what they have achieved and what they have learned.
The seminar series is aimed at academics/researchers and policy-makers seeking to understand how interaction between academics/researchers and policy-makers works and has been designed to enable those interested to take part in the seminars that they may be interested in.
The series follows on the previous two series of seminars over the last year.(You can watch back here)
The seminars will all be held in a hybrid fashion - in person in the Maynooth University Social Sciences Institute (on the top floor of the Iontas building) and online. Tea/coffee will be available in advance of the seminars.
Details of the seminar series are as follows:
Wednesday 15 October – 11-12.15 – Prof. Brian Ó Gallachóir, Associate Vice-President of Sustainability at University College Cork and Director of MaREI - the Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation (co-ordinated by the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at University College Cork) and Ian Hughes, Research Officer, Department of Education and Youth who was on secondment to MaREI for a number of years, will reflect on their experiences of connecting the research underway in MaREI to policy-making
Thursday 11 September – 11-12.15 – Following up on the seminar, which was held on 16 April, to reflect on the 1995 White Paper on Education, 30 years after its publication, this seminar will hear the perspective of Dr. Don Thornhill who was leading work at the time as Secretary General of the Department of Education.
Thursday 20 November – 11-12.15 – Dr. Nicola Mountford, School of Business, Maynooth University, Dr Avril Kennan, CEO of Health Research Charities Ireland (HRCI) and Dr Anne Cody, Head of Investigator Led Grants, Research Careers & Enablers at the Health Research Board (HRB) will reflect on their work together in a New Foundations project funded by the then Irish Research Council. This project considered how to further strengthen the public and patient voice in decision-making around the Joint Funding Scheme where HRCI member charities co-fund health research with HRB.
It is hoped to add a further seminar to this series for early December and an update will issue when this can be confirmed.
