Nine awards were presented on 17 September in the O’Brien Centre for Science by UCD President Professor Orla Feely. The UCD Research Culture – Local Actions, Initiatives and Measures (ReCLAIM), funded by Wellcome Institutional Fund for Research Culture, is an internal programme that supports teams to explore new ideas to foster a positive and supportive research culture locally with potential for wider impact across the university.
Speaking about the awards, President Orla Feely said: “At UCD, we aim to build a research culture that is positive, proactive and characterised by integrity, dignity, respect and inclusion. It is our aim to foster an environment that supports these values and objectives at every level, while also enabling every member of our community to contribute to building the culture.
“The Research Culture Initiative has had my strongest personal commitment since its inception, so it gives me great pleasure to announce the recipients of the first round of ReCLAIM awards. The nine projects explore a diverse range of areas and topics, conducted by diverse collaborating teams, that will yield knowledge and outputs for the benefit of the whole research system and beyond at UCD. I look forward to seeing what we can learn from these projects and encourage everyone to get involved with activities from the UCD Research Culture Initiative.”
UCD Research Culture Initiative Chair, Professor Grace Mulcahy said: “I am delighted to be able to announce these initial ReCLAIM grants, supported by the Wellcome Institutional Fund for Research Culture. We look forward to hearing about the impact these have within UCD. In addition, we will in the next few weeks be announcing a further round of ReCLAIM funding, and encourage applications from all roles and career stages in our research community.”
The next call for ReCLAIM grants will open on 14 October. The nine projects representing all six UCD colleges funded in the first round are:
‘Advanced Communication Skills for Research Teams,’ led by Dr Carol Aherne, with Dr Deborah Wallace, Dr Sergio Rey and Dr Stephen Thorpe (all UCD School of Medicine).
‘Enhancing research culture, problem-solving and knowledge translation: Robust evidence synthesis meets innovation through creativity and design thinking,’ led by Assoc Professor Kate Frazer, with Assoc Professor Barbara Coughlan, Dr Andrew Darley (all UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems), Mr Liam Cleere (UCD Research), Professor Lizbeth Goodman (UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering), Professor Michelle Norris (UCD Geary Institute), Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick (UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science), Professor Thilo Kroll (UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems), Dr Nancy Bhardwaj, Mr Diarmuid Stokes (UCD Library).
'Team of Teams for Research,' pilot initiative for research teams led by Mr Allen Higgins, with Dr Paul Dylan-Ennis (both UCD Lochlann Quinn School of Business).
'Carers Conference Support Fund Pilot Scheme,' led by Ms Shonny Lehane (UCD School of Earth Sciences/iCRAG), with Dr Aoife Brady, Assoc Professor Claire Harnett (UCD School of Earth Sciences), and Assoc Professor Jennifer Keenahan (UCD School of Civil Engineering).
'Here Comes Everyone: Toward a research culture of hospitality in the School of English, Drama and Film,' led by Dr Éireann Lorsung with Ms Kathryn Murray (UCD School of English, Drama and Film).
'The Generator: Post-doctoral research in an interdisciplinary world,' led by Professor Imelda Maher (UCD Sutherland School of Law), with Dr Roderick Jones (UCD School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering) and Professor Eilish McAuliffe (UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems).
'Whose Story is it Anyway? Building an ethical culture of collecting, cataloguing and archiving,' led by Assoc Professor Samantha Martin (UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy), with Dr Brendan O'Neill (UCD School of Archaeology).
'Responsible use of GenAI for daily research activities,' led by Dr Shen Wang (UCD School of Computer Science) with Dr Adrian Byrne (CeADAR, Ireland's Centre for AI).
'Interdisciplinary early career seminar for Medieval Studies,' led by Dr Megan Welton (UCD School of History).
Commenting on the awards, Dr Éireann Lorsung said: “The project Kathryn Murray and I are undertaking is really a project in noticing. What makes a research culture liveable, workable, and free for everyone who spends time in the place where it happens? (What are those places?) What's it like to be in such a space as a person who does research or is adjacent to the formalized processes of research at a university? How can we learn to notice what kinds of work, and how many people, are involved in research? And how might it be possible to open up networks of collaboration and contact so that the space where this work happens feels warm, hospitable, and possible?”
Dr Shen Wang said: “While many researchers are using Generative AI (GenAI) to enhance their productivity, there is a growing concern about its impact on research integrity. Our project promotes the ‘Living Guidelines on the Responsible Use of Generative AI in Research’ that was proposed by the European Commission earlier this year. We aim to gather feedback and adapt these guidelines to UCD practices through a series of workshops. This project's outcomes will be shared with the UCD research community via a white paper and a short online course in 2025. We are grateful to have received support from the UCD Research Culture ReCLAIM fund and we hope this project will help UCD researchers use GenAI efficiently and ethically.”
Also presented at the awards, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow from the Research Culture team, Hugh Fulham-McQuillan delivered some early findings from the unit's latest research: 'Researcher well-being and its intersection with Research Culture'.
He said: “These preliminary findings from the Research Culture team's work demonstrate links between specific areas of research culture and mental health. In particular, the perception that the overall research ecosystem benefits disproportionately from researchers’ interest in their work was strongly tied to work-related stress. While further analysis is ongoing, this is an area that could potentially be improved. Our next steps involve triangulating these quantitative findings with our qualitative responses, and preparing manuscripts for publication based on these findings.”
Find out about the UCD Research Culture initiative at www.ucd.ie/researchculture, and learn more about the nine ReCLAIM projects here.