Academic biography

Cliona McParland is an assistant professor in Digital Business, specialising in digital transformation at Dublin City University Business School. Her research focuses on public sector digital innovation and transformation, and has guided the governance policies of An Garda Síochána. Cliona is the current Chairperson for the multi-award-winning BSc. in Digital Business and Innovation ‘Futures’ undergraduate degree in DCU Business School. 

Cliona is a multi-award winning educator, winning the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) Impact Award (2025) for a CBL module she designed and delivered to final year digital business and innovation students, a national Outstanding Educator of the Year Award (2025) as well as receiving a DCU Presidents Award for innovative teaching practices (2025). She was also highly commended in the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM) award for Excellence and Innovation in Management Pedagogy (2025) and the Jennifer Burke Innovative Teaching Practices award (2025).

Cliona is an active member of LERO, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, researching within the GovTech stream, the VIRTUE Network - Integrating Immersive Technologies in Education as well as the Virtual Reality Lab Working Group, the Challenge-Based Learning Working Group, the Transversal Skills Working Group and the Anti-corruption Research Centre (ARC) in Dublin City University. Research interests include immersive technologies, gender equality in technology and innovation, digital disruption and responsible AI, green tech and the future of work.  Cliona is the current co-chair for the newly introduced ‘Gender and Technology’ track within ‘Information Technology, Social Justice and Marginalized Contexts’ for the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Cliona’s research work is highly regarded and has been recognised with a number of international awards and distinctions to date.