OVERVIEW OF MY ROLE
My role as project manager within the UCD School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science is very varied. I work closely with Principal Investigator, Prof William Gallagher, and support him in many of his activities. The main body of my work has focused on helping Prof Gallagher establish the All-Island Cancer Research Institute (AICRI). This has been an exciting and challenging role as I have been involved from the idea stage of the project, to winning support for the concept from stakeholders, to securing the first funding success for the project. Key elements of my work involve arranging meetings with stakeholders, communicating with stakeholders, developing and maintaining good relationships with academic partners, preparing slides for presentations, writing reports, preparing funding applications, promoting AICRI’s presence on social media and developing AICRI’s first promotional video.
ACHIEVEMENTS
I provide a project management framework for AICRI which is very useful in terms of managing this large-scale project, planning activities, meeting deadlines, communicating with stakeholders and preparing project finances. I played an important role in helping the AICRI project secure its first funding success under the Irish Research Council New Foundations 2021 Award. This funding has facilitated AICRI to hold a series of workshops and to develop a website. I also played a key role in the AICRI’s application under the HEA North South Research Programme 2021. This application was successful and AICRI was awarded ¤4 million to train 10 PhD students and 10 Post-doctoral fellows across 10 institutions in precision cancer medicine. The AICRIstart programme is due to begin in September 2022 and will run for four years. I set up the AICRI project Twitter account and helped to develop AICRI’s first promotional video. I helped to organise the first AICRI research workshop on Living with and beyond Cancer which took place online in November 2021. I also helped to organise AICRI’s first Patient Stakeholder hybrid workshop in March 2022. This was a key event as one of AICRI’s main objectives is to engage with cancer patient advocacy groups across the island of Ireland.
VALUE OF MY CONTRIBUTION
Through my work, I make a significant contribution to helping Prof Gallagher and the broader AICRI achieve their goals as I provide a strong project management framework for this large-scale project. Building relationships with stakeholders takes time and effort. In my role as project manager, I have communicated very well with stakeholders and helped to build trust and pave the way for strong all-island collaboration in cancer research going forward. This
shows the importance of having dedicated project management time. Apart from AICRI, I help with financial reporting on other grants awarded to Prof Gallagher and help to ensure that reporting requirements to funders are met on time. In 2021, Prof Gallagher received the SFI Researcher of the Year award. I am currently undertaking an MSc in Project Management (Part-time) in the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School which helps to strengthen my project management skills and makes me a valuable resource to have on a team.