President's Ezine
President's News, August 2019
2 DCU Cancer Research enters Clinical Trials
3 Rising First Preference Applications to DCU
4 Dr John Regan awarded Royal Society Fellowship
6 Anti-Corruption Appointment for Dr Rob Gillanders
7 Palestinian Partnership Project
8 Developing a Global University
9 DCU Ability Students Complete Training
11 Prof Robert Elgie and Prof Rory O'Connor, RIP
European Funding Successes
DCU’s School of Law and Government is a partner in a consortium that has been awarded €4.39m EU funding under the Erasmus Mundus programme for the International Master’s in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies.
This programme is offered jointly with the University of Glasgow, Charles University, Prague and the University of Trento. It allows students to spend a semester studying in three separate universities over the 2 year programme. It was one of the most successful International Master’s programmes supported by Erasmus over the last three years, with 65 students in its current cohort.
The DCU input into the programme is led by Dr James Fitzgerald from the School of Law and Government. The programme is at present coordinated by Glasgow and DCU will take over this leadership role in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Researchers from the School of Law and Government have also achieved significant success with regard to Erasmus+ funding.
Three projects were awarded funding under the Jean Monnet strand of Erasmus+, which aims to promote excellence in teaching and research in the field of European Union studies and to foster dialogue between the academic world and policy-makers.
The DCU Brexit Institute, under the leadership of Prof Federico Fabbrini was awarded €300,000 for “Brexit Research and Investigation into Differentiated Governance in Europe”. The project is led by the Brexit Institute, in collaboration with the University of Bolzano/Bozen, the University of Copenhagen and the Central European University, Budapest.
€60,000 was awarded to Dr Jivanta Schöttli from the School of Law and Government for a research project titled “Land administration in EU Development Policy: nutrition, gender empowerment, equity and climate change resilience”.
Dr Ken McDonagh, from the School of Law and Government, was awarded funding of €30,000 for his proposal titled “Teaching EU Foreign and Security Policy: Theory and Practice”.
DCU Cancer Research enters Clinical Trials
Congratulations are due to researchers at DCU's National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (NICB) whose innovative breast cancer treatment has entered Phase 1 of clinical trials.
The new drug combination developed at DCU is designed to treat women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. It highlights our continuing commitment to “advance our reputation for world class research” (Strategic Goal #2) and to the creation of knowledge with positive societal impact.
The trials are the culmination of many years' work by researchers based in the NICB, most notably Dr Norma O’Donovan. The research was supported by the Cancer Clinical Research Trust, The Caroline Foundation and BreastPredict. This trials are supported by U.S.-based biopharmaceutical firm Puma Biotechnology.
Ireland is the first country to assess the new combination in women with metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer. HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for approximately 560 of the 2,500 new breast cancer cases diagnosed in Ireland each year.
The CAROLINE-1 study is sponsored by Puma Biotechnology, Inc. and led by Professor John Crown of St. Vincent’s University Hospital, who was recently re-appointed as the Thomas Baldwin Chair of Translational Medicine at DCU.
Rising First Preference Applications to DCU
DCU has seen an increase in demand for its courses across our five faculties, as reflected in the CAO’s recently released applications data. We are seeing strong growth in 1st preference applications for our STEM-based degrees, and high demand for some new programme offerings. The figures show DCU continues to develop attractive programmes that address key skill gaps within the Irish economy, and inspire the learning goals of prospective students.
The % increases below highlight some of DCU’s most popular undergraduate courses are:
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering +46%
Common Entry Engineering +32%.
Data Science +46%
Science Education +48%.
Environmental Science and Technology +85%
Psychology +38%
Religious Education and English +61%
Law +28%
Economics, Politics and Law +15%
Global Business (Canada) +62%
Global Business (Spanish) +34%.
Dr John Regan awarded Royal Society Fellowship
Congratulations to Dr John Regan of DCU’s School of Mathematical Sciences and Centre for Relativity and Astrophysics (CfAR) on his appointment as a 2019 University Research Fellow by the Royal Society. The award is in recognition of his outstanding early career research and leadership potential. It is the first University Research Fellowship awarded to DCU since these Royal Society awards were extended to Irish research institutions in 2015.
Dr. Regan gained national and international prominence for his ground-breaking work on the subject of supermassive black hole formation in the early Universe with articles on his work appearing in both Nature and Nature Astronomy. The fellowship will allow Dr. Regan to develop state-of-the-art theoretical models to understand the growth of black holes from their formation up to their maximal size, and in the process identify where in the Universe is most conducive to black hole formation.
This award underlines the world-leading research taking place in CfAR - a research centre created in DCU less than 2 years ago but already with a significant and growing international reputation.
Athena Swan Survey
DCU will apply for re-accreditation of our Athena SWAN Bronze Award this November. As part of the process, the Athena SWAN charter has been extended to include all staff categories across all disciplinary areas, academic, professional and administrative.
I would strongly encourage everyone to play a part in the process by participating in the 2019 DCU Athena SWAN survey. This will provide valuable information which will shape the DCU’s Athena SWAN Action Plan for the coming three years.
The university first received its Bronze Award in April 2017 in recognition of its commitment to advancing gender equality for women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and creating cultural change within the University.
Anti-Corruption Appointment for Dr Rob Gillanders
The quality and reputation of another DCU researcher was highlighted again recently, with the announcement that the European Commission has approved Dr Robert Gillanders as Ireland’s main anti-corruption expert for an EU-wide network.
Dr Gillanders, an Assistant Professor of Economics in DCU Business School, will act as the local research consultant on corruption to the European Commission. He will report to the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs on Ireland's corruption risks and anti-corruption policy and practice. Dr Gillanders has published numerous articles on corruption and anti-corruption policy and is a member of Transparency International's expert network.
Palestinian Partnership Project
Our School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering hosted a capacity-building programme for ten visiting academics from Gaza as part of an EU Erasmus+ project.
i-CARE (Increasing the Conformance of Academia towards Rehabilitation Engineering) is an EU Comission-funded Erasmus+ project focussed on expanding knowledge and skills in the areas of rehabilitation engineering and education among academic staff in a number of Palestinian partner universities and institutions.
DCU’s training programme featured training on topics relating to Rehabilitation Engineering (Consultation skills, Physical disabilities, Biomechanics, Robotics/Exoskeletons) and Education (Curricula Development, Problem-Based Learning), as well as site visits to UCD, Enable Ireland and Clontarf Hospital.
Congratulations to Prof. Dermot Brabazon, DCU’s project coordinator, and Dr. Eanna McCarthy, the assistant project coordinator, for making the training program a success. Thanks also to Philip McKinley, DCU Chaplain, for hosting a ceremony at the Inter-Faith Centre on our Glasnevin campus, to mark the completion of the visit.
Developing a Global University
DCU entered into two significant new international agreements, with universities in the US and in Morocco, respectively, in recent weeks, in line with our Strategic Goal #6 "to develop a global university".
An agreement was signed with Arizona State University (ASU) to establish a Biodesign Institute Europe Research Centre (Biodesign Europe) at DCU. This new centre will consolidate key areas of life sciences and bio-engineering research activity in DCU and develop collaborative research programmes with the ASU Biodesign Institute. The MOU was signed on behalf of ASU by Professor Sethuraman ‘Panch’ Panchanathan, Executive Vice-President, ASU Knowledge Enterprise.
An MOU has also been agreed with Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, Morocco. It provides for exchanges of students and academic staff as well as joint research and other collaborative ventures. It was signed on behalf of Cadi Ayyad University by Professor Fatima-Zohra Iflahen, Vice President for International Cooperation, and witnessed by HE Mr Lahcen Mahraoui, Morocco's Ambassador to Ireland.
DCU Ability Students Complete Training
Congratulations to the DCU Ability students who recently completed the initiative’s first training programme.
The DCU Ability programme puts our values of Equality, Inclusion and Educational Opportunity into action by helping young people with disabilities to improve their employment prospects and achieve their full potential.
A pilot group of six students completed the thirteen week course which included career preparation, work experience, personal and interpersonal skills, personal effectiveness, and health and safety in the workplace. These students are now able to move on with confidence to work placements in DCU and partner companies.
The DCU Ability team has also been working with a number of individual students around work placement confidence and skill development. We were pleased to host one of the Ability students in the President’s office.
Impact Report - Final Call
We are in the final stages of producing DCU’s first Annual Impact Report, due to be published next month. It will capture the range of impacts that our research and other activities are having on society, and will highlight our mission to ‘transform lives and societies’. The report is, framed largely, but not exclusively, around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Many thanks to the large number of you who have made submissions already. To ensure that the report is as comprehensive as possible, we are now extending one final opportunity to contribute to this report. Please send your information to Tom Swift in the President’s Office at tom.swift@dcu.ie by Monday August 11th.
Prof Robert Elgie and Prof Rory O'Connor, RIP
I know that we all share a sense of real shock and sadness at the sudden deaths, in the space of just one week in July, of two much-loved members of the DCU community, Prof Robert Elgie and Prof Rory O'Connor. Both Robert and Rory made huge contributions to this University and will be sadly missed by all who knew them.
Robert had been a DCU staff member for nearly two decades. He was the founding Head of the School of Law and Government, a world-renowned scholar of political institutions and presidentialism, and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. He will be remembered as a brilliant academic and a supportive colleague.
Rory led the School of Computing for almost 6 years, during which time he oversaw significant expansion and important programme innovations. He was a Senior Researcher at Lero and a nationally recognised expert in teaching and learning in Computing. He will be remembered as a gifted and enthusiastic researcher, a kind and generous colleague and a great friend.
The supportive culture of the DCU community is a core strength of this University, and I am pleased to say that it was very much in evidence in the days following the loss of our two colleagues. Once again, I wish to convey deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of both Robert and Rory at this sad time.