UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition 2024
Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick and Dr Alison Connolly of the UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science were announced today as two of 11 finalists in the 2024 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition, with Professor Fitzpatrick winning the Engaged Research prize for her work supporting cancer patients to quit smoking.
Dr Alison Connolly and Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick, pictured with UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown
UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown announced the winner and ten finalists of the 2024 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition. The annual competition encourages researchers from all disciplines to share how their work has made a positive difference to wider society.
Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick won the "Engaged Research” impact prize; this prize was awarded to the runner-up whose case study most strongly demonstrated meaningful collaboration with the public and stakeholders. ‘Supporting cancer patients to quit smoking post diagnosis’, showed impressive evidence of patient engagement, which led to improved treatment outcomes and positive effects on patients’ health. This Irish Cancer Society-funded research was co-developed with cancer patients who smoke to develop a way to help them cease smoking.
Dr Alison Connolly was announced as a finalist for her work on 'Using human biomonitoring to understand chemical exposures among the population'. Dr Connolly’s human biomonitoring studies include measuring human exposure to the most widely used herbicide in the world, Glyphosate. This is the active ingredient in over 750 different pesticide products, including Roundup® products. This research measured exposure levels and evaluated the risks among professional gardeners and agricultural workers.
Professor Robson Brown commented, “On behalf of UCD Research and Innovation, I’d like to heartily congratulate this year’s awardees. It is wonderful to celebrate their ground-breaking research today and to recognise how this work is influencing policy, building collaborations, enriching lives and inspiring the next generation. The number and quality of applications this year reflects the depth and breadth of impactful research taking place across the university at all career levels. It also illustrates how the ongoing provision of research impact resources is helping our community to communicate the ways in which their research is effecting change in a wide range of contexts; in modern technology, sustainable agricultural practices, public health, by improving the lives of young people, and through contributions to research on violence both in Ireland and further afield.”
The overall winner of the competition was ‘Ireland’s first satellite: transforming the national space landscape with the launch of EIRSAT-1’, led by Professor Lorraine Hanlon, Director of UCD Centre for Space Research and Professor of Astronomy at UCD School of Physics. The case study tells the story of the EIRSAT-1 project, highlighting the team’s historic achievement in building, launching and operating Ireland’s first satellite, and the social, cultural, political, educational, economic and technological impacts of their work.
Full details of all of the finalists' projects can be found here.
The 11 finalists of the 2024 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition
22nd January 2025