Civic Engagement Forum Minutes

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30pm 

Tuesday 3^rd October 2023, Room G401, St. Patrick's Campus+ Zoom

Attendance:

Una Redmond, Leah Ridgway, Antoinette Patton, Naadiya Carrim, Rosie Savage, Louise Hopper, Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, Cara Greene, Laurence van der Haegen, Emma Monahan, Grainne Reddy, Roisin Blunnie, Robert Gillanders, Deirdre Corby, Maria Chernyakova,  Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Siobhán Seoighe, Natalja Matease, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Carine Laure Metiefeng Mambou, Ryan Carey, Leeanne Hinch, Peter Admirand, Aisling Mc Kenna.

Apologies:

Christine O'Kelly, Justyna Byrzykowska, Laura Grehan, Laura Mahoney, Liam Macgabhann, Pádraig Murphy, Samantha Fahy, Trudy Corrigan, Agnés Maillot, Emma Clarke.

Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all existing and new members of the Civic Engagement Forum and provided a brief overview of the Civic Engagement Forum meeting format. 

It was noted that meetings will continue in hybrid format and all members were invited to submit updates through Google Form which will be the core element of the future meetings due to the high volume of information.

Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Leeanne Hinch and seconded by Luke Quinlan. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/civic-engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes.

Matters arising

N/A

President's Awards for Engagement

A Working Group from members involved in the President’s Awards across the University joined together to review, streamline, standardize and centralize DCU President's Awards process. The group have met on three occasions to date and will continue to meet regularly to see the review through to successful completion.

A dedicated President’s Awards webpage is being designed to promote the President’s Awards and to streamline the application process.

For the 2023-2024 President’s Awards Season, the dates are suggested as follows:

• Thursday 11 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Engagement.
• Thursday 18 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Professional Staff
• Thursday 25 th April 2024 – President’s Awards for Research.
• Thursday 2 nd May 2024 – President’s Awards for Teaching and Learning.

Re: President’s Awards for Engagement:

Call for nominations is scheduled for December 2023. The deadline for receipt of nominations will be in mid-February 2024. No changes to the adjudication process, but the Working Group recommend ruling out self-nominations.

Campus Engage 

Deiric Ó Broin briefed Civic Engagement Forum members on Campus Engage and its areas of activity: 

• Community-based Teaching and Learning
• Engaged Research and Innovation for Societal Impact
• Student Volunteering
• Planning for Impact

It was noted that Campus Engage is still going through a review process in the Irish Universities Association system.

Reports and updates

Emer Ní Bhrádaigh, Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge:

• A 1-day conference for those working or volunteering with social enterprises, charities or community organisations, or anyone with an interest in the social economy will take place on Friday, 3 November in the Ashling Hotel. More details to follow.
• Enactus Ireland is being dissolved & being brought in with Enactus UK which will be Enactus UK and Ireland now.  DCU won’t be participating any more in the Enactus social entrepreneurship competition due to the low student participation.

Siobhán Seoighe

• Oifig na Gaeilge’s online staff Irish courses, starting in October 2023
• A committee of Irish language officers met on DCU Campus recently to talk about a new language act.

Deirdre Corby, PATH 4 call

Phase 2 of PATH 4 is about all about addressing the inclusivity goals in the new National Access Plan (HEA).

It consists of a competitive call for proposals for the enhancement of course provision in higher education for students with intellectual disabilities.

Starting in 2023, the total funding available under PATH 4 Phase 2 is €3m per annum (or €9m over three years).

I have made attempts to draw a diverse cross university team for a possible application. While we can build on the success of the DCU Ability programme which was situated in SNPCH, to maximise potential wider DCU participation is required. Unfortunately this has not been possible. I am not aware if anyone else in DCU is looking at this call and of course would be happy to help.

It is the very first time the department has provided a specific fund for Higher Education Institutions to provide courses for students with an intellectual disability. Indeed our own research within the DCU community https://doi.org/10.3390/disabilities2030029 showed that opening education to a diverse student body benefits everyone within the University.

Laurence van der Haegen, Access Outreach Officer

The focus of DCU Access is to improve equity of access to college. In Outreach, we deliver a range of outreach initiatives to students in our 25 linked DEIS schools and in the community. Relevant events coming up include:

• 1. Maths Drop-ins - Wednesdays (6-8pm) - always looking for volunteers as number are high
• 2. College Awareness Month - Nov'23 inc. a series of events:
• - Empowering Communities (1st Nov'23) - A series of workshops on access to third-level education to empower community & youth workers to have conversations on Education with their target groups.
• - Combining Sports & college (06/11/23) - Event to raise awareness and aspirations of students with a passion for Sports.
• - Teaching as a career (15/11/23) - Students share their experience with students aspiring to become teachers.
• - Access to College - (27/11/23) - Short talks followed by roundtable event. Themes: Finance, CAO, Hear, Dare, Mature students & FET
• 3. Faculty tasters (Feb'24) - We are looking for Faculties to support the event by offering short bite-size workshops to 5th year students during Reading Week.

Masha Chernyakova, Physics

• School of Physics Week-long TY Programme - 40 second level students; School of Physics Leaving Certificate Practicals - 450 second level students; STEM Teacher Internship Programme - 56 industry collaborators, 100 second level STEM teachers, 25 primary STEM teachers; Science on Stage - 300 second level STEM teachers; Space week open night, 200 participants; participation in the ESA- and NASA-supported project to coordinate amateur astronomers to observe Exoplanets with small, privately owned telescopes.
• Erasmus + projects: STAMPEd/RISE/STEM Digitalis -  100 second level teachers

Grainne Reddy, Age Friendly University

• Love of Life Long Learning Programme modules are starting next week
• 55 delegates from Malta visited on 18th of October

Deiric O’Broin, Office of Civic Engagement

• The Office of Civic Engagement has been leading DCU's involvement with the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor Network (see https://www.dbec.info/ for more details) and is currently involved in two research projects. The first project is funded by the Shared Island Unit and is examining the potential of a network of innovation centres along the corridor. The research is being carried out by KPMG. The second project is an analysis of the skills development ecosystem along the corridor and is at an earlier stage of development. The research will be carried by colleagues in UU and DCU.
• We hosted a meeting of councillors of all local authorities last Thursday

Úna Redmond, Student Life 

Clubs and Socs Recruitment Days were very successful, with record numbers signing up this year.  It brought great colour and excitement to both campuses. It is heartening to see this engagement in the early weeks of the semester.  The U continues to be the centre of social and recreational activity on campus, with events and meetings taking place every day.

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

• The CER webinar series 'The Power of Collaboration' will commence this academic year. See schedule below: 
• September 28th - Robert Gillanders 
• October 26th - Samantha Fahy 
• November 30th - Deiric O'Broin & Paula Dolan
• December 21st - Breige Casey
• January 25th - Mathias Urban 
• February 29th - TBC 
• March 28th - Brenda McNally 
• April 25th - TBC 
• CER report on practicing engaged research at DCU nearly complete - publish in December
• CER event on December 11th is currently being organised - inviations to be sent in October
• CER currently transitioning from research centre to research support unit. Plan is this will facilitate a new CER strategy with more specific achievable goals, etc. in the future.

Carine Laure Mambou, Dublin City University/Girls’ Education: Catalyst For Elite Women’s Empowerment

• Training session with girl's and women about education( formal and non formal) and it's importance 
• training session about personal development, self confidence, mental health issue and their correlation woth education
• training session about girl’s education: more girls and women in steam with role model
• Upcoming event: pan-african “steam is girls” campaign inspire change 2024

Hannah Goss, School of Health and Human Performance

• Marketing convenor for the School of Health and Human Performance. 
• Co-ordinate School efforts with Science Week, the Smarter Travel Student Awards, and other outreach and engagement activities.
• Keen research interest in participatory methods, and currently lead of LifeLab Dublin (a co-designed health literacy intervention for young people from socio-economic disadvantage).

Una McCabe, School of Arts Education and Movement

• School AEM is consistently involved in arts related engagement with the community and news about those events is posted on our School webpage. We work closely each year with an Arts Council funded artist in residence. 
• This year Dave Rudden (writer and storyteller) will perform for 450 of our students, and local schools will be invited. He will also be involved in smaller projects in collaboration with local schools. Una McCabe and Michael Flannery's SHAPE project (Social Health, Arts, and Personal Education) will continue with older citizens via DCU Age Friendly University. 
• There will be a student art exhibtion, site specific student performances in the Botanic Gardens, a drama and social justice project with a local school, as well as other projects currently in their planning stages.   

Antoinette Patton, College Connect Programme DCU / Access/ SS &D

• -DCU Community Education Forum 
• -'Headstart in the Community' Pilot with 4 community organisations
• -Schools workshops with STAR NTRIS and the DCU Traveller and Roma Officer
• -Pathways and Finance workshops with Balseskin Reception Centre (Refugees and IPA)
• -Empowering Communities with DCU Widening Participation Officer (Youthworkers and Community Leaders)
• -In talks with Mountjoy Prison Training Unit and Wheatfield Prison Education Unit for 2023/24 'Changemakers' programme
• -Planning for 'Uni in the Community' launch

Ryan Carey, SS&D Widening Participation (College Connect)

• - Disbursed 5 University of Sanctuary scholarships to taught postgraduate students
• - Awarded funding by the DCEDIY to run voter education workshops for refugees/IP applicants for the 2024 Local Elections and produce anti-racism training videos

Leeanne Hinch, CTYI

• During the summer we had >1000  teenagers attending classes with us in St. Pats campus, while we had another 1000 primary school students attending classes in DCU's Glasnevin campus. 
• We launched a handbook for supporting gifted children in St. Pats campus, and it was launched by Minister Roderic O'Gorman. The event was attended by staff, students, and parents. 
• We also started the CTYI alumni speaker series where award winning author Sally Hayden was joined by Andrew Payne for a fireside chat in St Pats. The event was attended by CTYI alumni and current staff and students. 
• Over the coming months we will be running our programmes for students aged between 6-17 on campus in DCU. 
• We have ~400 TY students on campus in DCU each week where they will be taking first year modules. 
• We will have an additional ~100 teenagers attending DCU campus on one Saturday per month where they will be working on research projects. 
• We will have ~650 primary school students on campus each Saturday. Their parents and/ or guardians will also be attending for orientations and any guest lectures that we run throughout the programme. 
• We will also have ~120 students from DEIS primary schools in the local area attending classes specifically arranged for them on Wednesday afternoons in the coming months.   

Rosie Savage, School of Inclusive & Special Education

• Sinead McCauley Lambe has been working with schools in a voluntary capacity to provide CPD in relation to Handwriting Development and Personal Social Development (Puppet Workshops) and has more upcoming sessions planned with various schools. 
• Laura Gormley is engaged in a cross-border research project with QUB, there are two autistic research assistants working with us. The project aims to identify the terminology preferences (person-first vs identity-first) and IEP priorities of the autistic community and compare these to the preferences and priorities of educators supporting autistic students, with a view to making recommendations to the educational community, which centre the autistic voice. The project is funded by SCoTENS seed funding.

Sylwia Kazmierczak Murray, School of Inclusive and Special Education

• as a school, we are involved in a few participatory research projects. For example, as part of her PhD research, Leanne Connolly is consulting with students in Irish Special Schools, their parents and their teachers, on their views and experiences of post-school preparation and transition. Kathryn O'Mahony and Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray are funded by the DECDIY to develop national guidelines to include disabled children and young people in decision-making, and this process involves engaging with representatives from Disabled People's Organisations, and consulting with disabled children and young people via Hub na nÓg which is a national centre supporting children and young people participation. 
• Leanne Connolly is also on a team of Irish Research Council funded research project on Supporting Transitions Including All Learners (STIAL), this project will commence on 30th September. The project aims to provide access to career guidance information and transition support to career guidance counsellors and senior cycle class teachers working with students with intellectual disabilities and their parents in mainstream post-primary and special schools.
• Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray works with Childhood Development Initiative in Tallaght in designing and implementing responses to local needs in community, this involves capacity building for professionals and information for parents (one recent project is focused on  designing and implementing school avoidance toolkit for parents and schools). 
• Sylwia Kazmierczak-Murray is also volunteering on the Board of Directors and Governance Subcommittee of the Dublin North West Partnership, an organisation promoting self-development, well-being. training, education, and employment opportunities for individuals and community organisations in the Dublin North area.

Liam Macgabhann, Nursing, Psychotherapy & Community Health - Recovery College

• Just completed community capacity building project in NEIC Dublin around Dual Diagnosis. Presently delivering community capacity building in mental health and substance misuse communities across Europe (Erasmus Cooperative Partnership), including Dublin North. 
• Two reports due over next month. 
• About to lead out on a proposal to provide Recovery Education nationally into the Prison Services, hosting Director General and Prison Governors, along with potential consortium stakeholders at DCU in November.

Justyna Byrzykowska, DCU Volunteer

• DCU Volunteer Fair is taking place on the 9th of October on St. Patricks Campus, and on the 10th of October on Glasnevin campus. 25 organisation attending on GLA, and 19 on SPC. Please spread the word with all staff members and students as this event only takes place once a year.
• Comhlamh: Mandatory meeting for all staff and students involved with volunteering to take place mid November. This is to ensure everyone follows Comhlamh's updated code of practise.

Eabhnat Nifhloinn, Mathematical Sciences

• Members of the School of Mathematical Sciences are involved in organising outreach activities during Maths Week, Science Week, and Space Week. 
• The School also runs a Transition Year programme for a week in April, as part of the Faculty of Science Transition Year programme. 
• The Maths Learning Centre has been involved in a number of outreach initiatives, providing drop-in mathematics support to post-primary level students over the years. 
• Prof Turlough Downes has been on the Board of the Irish Research Council since 2020.

Leah Ridgway, School of Electronic Engineering

Summer 2023, ran 3 ICT summer camps on electronic and computer engineering. 80 participants (50 girls) aged 12-15 participated. We hope to repeat in summer 2024 and also put on an intermediate level camp to facilitate participants who wish to return for a greater challenge.

Samantha  Fahy, Sustainability DCU

• DCU will submit its second iteration of the DCU Climate Action Roadmap in response to the governments Public Sector Climate Action Mandate.  A copy of this Roadmap and other plans and reports are available at https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability/dcu-climate-action-plan-2021-2026.   There are lots of actions so please review.  As part of this roadmap, the DCU Senior Management Group will take Climate Action Leadership training in Oct 2023.  Similar training will be rolled out to other senior staff throughout 2023/2024. DCU is working with the IUA and other Universities to develop a collaborative training programme that will minimise resources use across the sector and deliver a consistent message. 
• DCU Sustainability has revised the DCU Travel pages and there is now lots more info on how to get to DCU and we are working with the DCU estates team to deliver improving facilities for active commuters across all campuses - https://www.dcu.ie/travel-to-dcu.  Make sure and sign up for Walktober 2023 there is still time - https://www.dcu.ie/travel-to-dcu/smarter-travel. 
• DCU Sustainability is currently participating in the DCC Ballymun Decarbonisation Zone project. 
• A new Biodiversity Working Group has been established with academic and DCU Estates members to optimise the future potential and current engagement with, and impact of, external campus resources and biodiversity across the University as a whole.  Please email sustainability@dcu.ie for more info.

Cara Greene, ADAPT Research Centre, School of Computing

• ADAPT just ran #ExploreAI for Researchers Night on Friday 29th September in the Douglas Hyde Gallery (https://www.adaptcentre.ie/explore-ai/). #ExploreAI was an interactive showcase of cutting edge research on artificial intelligence (AI). Exhibitions included challenging the public to go up against the machine as the ‘Art or AI?’ Museum of Very Modern Art, Virtual Reality and the SignOn project amongst others. There was also an AI dilemma Café on the night as well pop up talks including DCU Irish language work, Smart D8 collaboration and public patient data use in AI for better health outcomes.
• ADAPT is rolling out our schools programme including AI in my Life TY programme and the All Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) which is in one in four schools on the island.

Aidan Driscoll, DCU Access service

• Step up in STEM is a project to encourage more students from under-represented backgrounds to take up STEM degrees by engaging them through interactive STEM activities on campus and meetings and talks with current DCU students studying STEM. 800 students participated last year 
• We are always looking for work experience opportunities for students as they don't always have access to these opportunities so anyone who can offer work exeprience places to local students, it's an invaluable opportunity.

Naadiya Carrim, Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics

Upcoming events: Navigating Data-Driven Futures in the Helix on Nov 15. This is strategically focused at industry and is an external event.

AOB

St. Pat’s Campus, Community Garden visit:

Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: 21^st November 2023 @ 12.30pm

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.30 pm

Tuesday 6^th December 2022, PG10, All Hallows + Zoom

Attendance:

Deiric Ó Broin, Luke Quinlan, Christine O'Kelly, Úna Redmond, Justyna Byrzykowska, Natalja Matease, Siobhán Seoighe, Nathan Murphy, Samantha Fahy.

Apologies:

Eleanor Healion, Emer Ni Bhradaigh, Laura Mahoney, Trudy Corrigan, Liam Macgabhann, Padraig Murphy.

1. Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson) welcomed all members of the Civic Engagement.

2. Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Siobhán Seoighe and seconded by Nathan Murphy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

3. Matters arising

N/A

4. President's Awards for Engagement

Deiric Ó Broin provided an overview of President's Awards for Engagement process including judging and a marking matrix. The review of the President’s Awards process is still ongoing.

In the following discussion, it was suggested to add a marking matrix to the awards webpage: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/presidents-awards-engagement.

5. Campus Engage

Campus Engage is an initiative promoting civic and community engagement which was launched 8 years ago (https://www.campusengage.ie/) and it is going through a significant review in the Irish Universities Association system at the moment. Laura Mahoney is the university nominee on the board.

Engaged Research & Innovation: New Train the Trainer 6 Week Online Course: https://www.campusengage.ie/our-work/researchers-working-with-society/t…

6. Reports and updates

Christine O'Kelly, Age Friendly University

• A training workshop on ageism is tomorrow with the Irish Senior Citizen Parliament and Valerie Cox for all staff.
• Age Friendly University will also be the Irish lead again this year for the global Intergenerational week at the end of April.
• TRACEUS project just finished, more details at https://traceus.eu/
• Age Friendly University have just waved farewell to a visiting academic from California who was with them for three months and will be hosting a Slovenian student for an Erasmus project for the Spring and a visitor from the USA medical military corps coming to work with AFU.
• A “social prescribing” initiative, starts in 2023 and aims to prevent and combat social isolation and loneliness through art and culture.

Úna Redmond, Student Life:

• Classes finished last week
• Club and societies engagement level is back to the pre Covid time, all activities are on campus and societies are very active again
• Continuous work with Community Employment
• Reducing time poverty with students through focus on student accommodation issue

Luke Quinlan, Centre for Engaged Research

• Preparatory work for the next season lecture series
• Staff training (Campus Engage) module details to follow

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability

• DCU is now a Certified Bicycle Friendly Employer
• Ongoing work on:

• improving transportation to and from university
• reducing carbon footprint particularly from transportation
• public sector labs working group - improving the energy efficiencies in university laboratories

• Reduce Your Use weekly updates in collaboration with the Estates Office
• DCU have been issued with a Climate Action Mandate from HEA which requires to achieve a 51% reduction in energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030
• Declan Raftery has been identified as a climate and sustainability champion
• DCU  have joined a new Nature Positive Universities Alliance –

Siobhán Seoighe

• The diploma through the medium of Irish (level B2) course is up and running and the feedback is very positive
• Under the provision in Section 10A of the language Act DCU is now obliged to do at least 20% of the advertising in Irish and to spend 5% of the advertising budget on advertising in Irish in the Irish language media. This increased the amount of design and image translations.
• Not having the SU Irish language officer for the first 6 weeks created an additional workload
• Cumann Gaelach has a constitution

Justyna Byrzykowska, Volunteering

• The DCU Volunteer Fair 2023 will take place in February
• The Volunteering HelpDesk takes place every two weeks on a Tuesday from 1pm-3:30pm in the U building.

Nathan Murphy, DCUSU

• A well-attended walkout for affordable, accessible education took place on 13th October
• A Black History Week was held in November
• A very successful Freshers Month in the U Building

Trudy Corrigan, Institute of Education

A report and a seminar was organised in November 2022 in collaboration with the Irish Research Council and Age & Opportunity.

This research is very much focused on ageism within the context of the workplace but also within the context of civic engagement.

7. AOB

Time for next year meetings is going back to 10am.

8. Next Meeting

Date of the next meeting: TBC.

Dublin City University

Civic Engagement Forum

Minutes

Hybrid Meeting of the DCU Civic Engagement Forum at 12.00 pm, Tuesday 10^th May 2022,

 H206+ Zoom

Attendance:

Apologies:

Aisling McKenna, Emer Ni Bhradaigh , Elizabeth Mathews.

1. Welcome

Deiric Ó Broin (Chairperson), welcomed all members of the Civic Engagement .

2. Minutes

The previous minutes were proposed by Laura Mahoney and seconded by Samantha Fahy. Minutes are available online at: https://www.dcu.ie/engagement/civic-engagement-forum-minutes

3. Matters Arising

N/A

4. President’s Awards for Engagement 2022

• The awards ceremony was held  on Wednesday 27th April 2022, in SA 101
• Thanks to the adjudication panel, to all who nominated and thanks to all people who were involved in organising this well attended event
• The Civic Engagement Forum members had a discussion around the number of students’ nominations that have dropped this year. It was noted that not all engagement projects were reflected in nominations.
• It was suggested that the criteria needs to be specified more clearly in the next year’s call for nominations

5. Reports and updates

Mariana Colman, Centre for Engaged Research

• The online lecture series run successfully with 150 registered for tomorrow’s lecture
• Dublin City PPN summer school will run in a few weeks

Siobhán Seoighe

• Restructuring/rebranding of Irish language events
• Irish language courses started at the end of March
• Ongoing work on the dedicated DCU Gaeilge website

Samantha Fahy, Sustainability:

• The incorrect spelling on the 'Peace Pole' has now been corrected. The Raheny Rotary Club donated the pole to the university and it was installed on All Hallows campus.
• They university expects to have carbon budgets by the end of the year
• The launch of the DCU Centre for Climate and Society took place on May 5, 2022 on the DCU St. Patrick’s Campus, with a keynote address by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
• A well-attended event with the climate ambassadors was held last week
• IUA Future of Ireland: Rising to the Sustainability Challenge will be held on 20th May at TU Dublin (or watch online via Zoom)
• The AALEA Report Towards Climate Sustainability of the Academic System in Europe and beyond  has been just published. The report was prepared by the ALLEA Working Group Climate Sustainability in the Academic System. This report delves into academia’s negative impact on the climate through its own operations from the perspective of various stakeholders that play a key role in shaping the academic system. It also makes a series of tailored recommendations to mitigate detrimental effects of the academic system. The report will be presented on Thursday 12 May at the ALLEA General Assembly, which will also feature a panel discussion on the topic.

Nathan Murphy, DCUSU:

• The new executive team is taking over in June
• DCU Students’ Union organised a well-attended Pieta’s House Darkness Into Light last week
• Ross Boyd has been elected as a Vice President for Campaigns of the USI

Úna Redmond, Student Life:

• Uaneen Module portfolios have been marked up and awaiting results
• Clubs continued as normal for the most parts, societies activities were really impacted in semesters II and I.

Laura Grehan, ADAPT:

• Exploring the possibilities of Citizens’ Think-In public forum model to see what is the potential of it to inform research and relevant emerging policy.
• The Researchers' Night proposal was successful
• Last week ADAPT met with the Senator Lynn Ruane who is a member of the Seanad Éireann Civic Engagement Group

Veronica Crosbie, University of Sanctuary

• University of Sanctuary Ireland Inaugural conference will be hosted in DCU on 9^th-10^th September
• DCU's MELLIE Programme collaborates with IMMA and MELLIE’s graduation event was hosted in IMMA
• Re: Masters in refugee integration,  a new model which will allow to get a work experience in the community related to refugee issues is being introduced
• DCU is hosting a sizeable number of refugees from Ukraine on Glasnevin and St. Pat’s campuses
• IRIN (Irish refugee integration network) will offer free English language classes, practical information such as interactive maps and factsheets on Ireland, buddy systems, as well as information clinics for specific groups.

Padraig Murphy, School of Communications

• A full module dedicated to Engaged Research will be going ahead again this semester
• SMART-ER (ECIU project) is going ahead and a lot of different departments in DCU are involved
• Campus Engage have just completed 6 engaged research training events
• Celsius annual science communication on public engagement series this year were looking at the absence of science museums and science centres in Ireland.

Juliette Kinsey, Age Friendly University:

• 2  very successful and well attended events were held in April: Global Intergenerational week and Dublin Learning City Festival
• Traceus Project (Traditions, Recipes, & Cuisines of Europe using Smartphones) is kicking off. Volunteers are welcome.
• A new programme called Facing Interchange has started and its first information session was held on All Hallows campus yesterday
• A Positive Ageing photo competition has been launched

6. AOB

Date of the next meeting: Tuesday 4th October 2022.