2024 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition winners announced

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UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact Professor Kate Robson Brown has 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.

This year’s winner, ‘Ireland’s first satellite: transforming the national space landscape with the launch of EIRSAT-1’ was 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.

Researchers from the UCD College of Social Sciences & Law feature strongly in the finalists' list, including Professor Judith Harford, Dr Rachel Farrell and Amalia Fenwick from UCD School of Education with their research, “Power2Progress: building educational resilience in DEIS schools” and Dr Lucía Tiscornia from UCD School of Politics and International Relations with her research “Understanding the behaviour of criminal gangs and influencing policymaking.”

Pictured: Professor Kate Robson, Professor Judith Harford, Dr Rachel Farrell and Dr Lucía Tiscornia.

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 2024 UCD Research Impact Case Study Competition winner and finalists are:

Winner

Professor Lorraine Hanlon, UCD Centre for Space Research, UCD School of Physics

Ireland’s first satellite: transforming the national space landscape with the launch of EIRSAT-1

Finalists

Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science

Supporting cancer patients to quit smoking post diagnosis *Engaged research winner*

Dr Edward Burke, UCD School of History

Investigating loyalist paramilitarism and cross-border bombings during the Troubles

Dr Alison Connolly, UCD Centre for Safety and Health at Work, UCD School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science

Using human biomonitoring to understand chemical exposures among the population

Associate Professor David Coyle, Dr Claudette Pretorius, UCD School of Computer Science