Posted 19 Dec 2012
UCD Professor recognised for outstanding academic record in European integration
THESEUS, the European network of thinkers, actors and ideas whose aim is to foster an open and constructive dialogue between academia and politics about the future challenges of Europe, has presented UCD Professor Brigid Laffan with the 2012 Award for Outstanding Research on European Integration.
The award is in recognition of Professor Laffan’s considerable contribution to research on European integration and the strengthening of European studies as a discipline.
Professor Brigid Laffan (left) was presented with the THESEUS Award for Outstanding Research on European Integration 2012 by Catherine Day, Secretary General of the European Commission
Professor Laffan is a leading expert on Ireland’s European policy. She has authored several publications, including monographs and numerous articles in refereed journals. She has taken part in several international research projects. Between 2001 and 2004, she co-ordinated a six country cross national research project on “Organising for EU Enlargement”, financed by the EU Commission’s Fifth Framework Programme.
She has been part of two Networks of Excellence, CONNEX (2004-2007) and EU- CONSENT (2004-2009), and of the integrated research project on New Modes of Governance in Europe (NewGov, 2004-2007). She is also member of the editorial board of Journal of Common Market Studies, West European Politics.
In her public role as chair holder of the Irish Alliance for Europe in 2001/02 and Ireland for Europe in 2008, Professor Laffan has rendered outstanding service to the European case. After the defeat of the Nice and Lisbon referendum in Ireland, she established a campaign to engage in public debate on the key issues facing Ireland and the EU. She also acted several times as adviser on European policy to public bodies in Ireland, other EU member states and EU institutions.
For her merits as researcher and public person, she has been granted multiple distinctions – in 2005 she was nominated as member of the Royal Irish Academy, and in 2012 she received the Ordre national du Mérite from the President of the French Republic.
Professor Brigid Laffan is Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics at the UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin (since 1991). From 2005 to 2011 she was Principal of the UCD College of Human Sciences.
She was the founding director of the Dublin European Institute at UCD, and founding member of the Institute of European Affairs (IEA), which is now the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA), Ireland’s leading think tank on European and international issues.
She has had visiting assignments at universities across the world as for example University of Edinburgh and Leiden, Peking University, European University Institute, Florence and Freie Universität Berlin. From 1991 to 2004, she was a visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Brugge.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
