OVERVIEW OF MY ROLE
The DCRC comprise a multidisciplinary research group with expertise in molecular cell biology, genetics, bioinformatics, pharmacology, systems biology, chemical pathology and clinical medicine. Investigators are based in the UCD Conway Institute, the Mater Misericordiae University and St Vincent’s University Hospitals and work closely with international collaborators in academia and industry. The DCRC consists of 14 Principal Investigators and their teams including Post docs, PhD Students, clinical fellows, MSc students, Visiting Scholars including a Fulbright fellow, Visiting Professors and research fellows, research assistants, technicians and adjunct clinical faculty. I serve as a linchpin to the DCRC activities coordinating their onsite and offsite research activities. My role is to also provide support to ongoing research activities and strategic planning initiatives consistent with developing the institutional PTM theme. I also manage all operational responsibilities of the ISSF grant.
ACHIEVEMENTS
As a result of having a project manager in the DCRC the PTM theme has been effectively coordinated. I played a vital role in supporting successful grant applications from the DCRC to national and international funders. These include US Ireland R&D Partnership, JDRF NY, Enterprise Ireland, SFI, NIH, The Royal Irish Academy, HRB, EFSD, IRC Laureate Programme, IRC Government of Ireland PostDoctoral award, the EC IMI and IRC Postgraduate scholarships. Post award support has included effective coordination of DCRC investigators to enhance outputs regarding training of students and research fellows and development of funded collaborations between PIs and high impact publications, including, New England Journal of Medicine, Diabetes, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, and Nature Reviews Nephrology. Recent successes include the EU IMI SOPHIA project led by Prof Carel leRoux. This a €16 million 5-year study, consisting of 31 beneficiaries which focuses on Stratification of Obese Phenotypes to Optimize Future Obesity Therapy. I played a vital role to both stages of this submission and directly assisted with the grant agreement process and I support delivery of key milestones. I provided excellent management skills for several DCRC hosted international conferences including The Keystone Symposium on the Resolution of Inflammation and The bi-annual Ireland-India
Metabolic Medicine Summit. Several outreach events have been initiated and coordinated by myself including The Patient Voice in Diabetes Research; two successful events held thus far (June 2018 and November 2018). I have manged the DCRC contribution to numerous features in print and other media (eg Irish Independent Diabetes supplement featuring Catherine Godson, Helen Roche, Carel leRoux). I have successfully managed the hosting of a biannual Summer School for 5th year students from a DEIS school (led by Fiona McGillicuddy) and plan to run this annually once it is safe to do so.
VALUE OF MY CONTRIBUTION
Prior to the addition of a PM the DCRC social media presence was little/none. Since starting my position in October 2017, the DCRC have an up-to-date active UCD SOM DCRC website, and we have an active twitter profile. I have been involved in many funding proposals and of those that have been funded, the value is €39.5 million, with €5.5 million being awarded to UCD. There is a critical mass of PIs in the DCRC working on important research questions of value to UCD and beyond. Project management support was timely and appropriate to formally integrate the DCRC activities. Many of the above activities would not have taken place without the project manager and the UCD DCRC thanks to the ISSF/UCD for the funding of my position.