Issue 4 of our Newsletter highlights the intellectual vibrancy of our research community and the engagement our members have with contemporary societal and business issues. With the conclusion of the 5-year Irish Social Sciences Platform in September, we celebrated NUI Galway contribution to the Platform, and the enormous breadth of research outputs and the ongoing impacts of this Project at the final ISSP Conference People, Policy, Places and the Economy. This PRLTI-funded research programme has played a transformative role in developing a robust research and outreach capacity in the social sciences in Ireland and has contributed to Ireland’s significant rise in international scientific rankings.

The Institute supported a number of events including symposiums, seminars and workshops from across our research themes, which featured guest speakers from North America, Europe and Ireland, and we welcomed Fulbright Scholar Susan Monagan from Ithaca College in New York. We continue to grow our partnerships and collaborations with a view to developing future funding opportunities for our research community under Horizon 2020. Please contact us if you are interested in exploring such opportunities.

Is mise le meas,

Dr. James Cunningham

As the Irish Social Sciences Platform draws to a close, we review the Project's achievements and impacts at NUI Galway. The €16.5 million Project is the largest ever investment in social science research in Ireland, and was funded under the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions Cycle 4 (PRTLI 4), administered by the HEA and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Click HERE to watch the 3 minute video, which summaries the enormous and continuing impact the ISSP-supported research conducted at NUI Galway has had on social science research activities and outreach in Ireland.

The world’s best universities provide excellence in education and research that serves the current and future needs of the cities, regions and nations in which they are based. This conference highlighted examples of NUI Galway’s research and community outreach efforts and contemporary social and business debates that have been enabled through funding from PRTLI 4 as part of the Irish Social Science Platform. The focus of this conference was largely on NUI Galway’s contribution under the three pillars of the Irish Social Sciences Platform: Knowledge Society, Sustaining Communities and Balanced Regional and Rural Development. See HERE for more on this event.

In July, the Population and Migration Research Cluster of the Whitaker Institute hosted a workshop to promote and support the use of the Growing Up in Ireland dataset. Growing Up in Ireland is an exciting and historic national study of children. The study is following the progress of almost 20,000 children across Ireland to collect a host of information to help improve our understanding of all aspects of children and their development. For more information on the study, see HERE

The Whitaker Institute hosted a research symposium in August on Entrepreneurial Universities, Technology and Knowledge Transfer.

The objectives of the symposium were to discuss the fundamental questions central to entrepreneurial universities and technology and knowledge transfer; to explore the different mechanisms, supports and outcomes of technology and knowledge transfer; to share the findings of recently conducted empirical studies; and to provide a networking opportunity for researchers conducting empiricial studies in the area. For more on this event, see HERE

This year's conference took the format of a symposium led by the world renowned community-based Social Marketing expert, Dr. Doug McKenzie-Mohr, who previously visited the Institute in 2011.

Day One explored the concept of community-based social marketing and illustrated how it is being applied throughout the world to foster sustainable behaviour. On the second day, participants explored in greater detail how community-based social marketing can be used to foster sustainable behaviour. Conference Organiser: Dr Christine Domegan, Cluster Leader of the Social Innovation and Policy Cluster.

NUI Galway hosted the inaugural IAIS Workshop on Cloud Computing Research: Research and Practice in the Cloud - What is on the Horizon in September. The workshop brought together researchers and practitioners from across the island of Ireland, and focused on the Irish national agenda for research on cloud computing, as well as the international research stage for cloud computing.

The workshop was supported by the Irish chapter of the Association for Information Systems (IAIS), the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre (Lero) and the Whitaker Institute, and was delivered by the Business Information Systems discipline and Lero at NUI Galway, and the Cloud Computing Services Innovation Centre at Hewlett-Packard. See HERE for more information.