Making An Impact
Can Your Research Make An Impact?
The Higher Education Authority and the Irish Independent are inviting postgraduate research students in any discipline at an Irish higher education institution to make a short submission on the difference that your research work will make to a particular aspect of Irish life, to the country as a whole or indeed, internationally.
Five researchers, who in the opinion of an independent adjudication panel, have the most innovative or challenging ideas will be invited to present how their research is making an impact at a public event at The Helix at Dublin City University on 19 February 2013. They will have a maximum of ten minutes to make the presentation, followed by a brief question and answer session with an expert panel. Two awards of €2500, sponsored by the Irish Independent, will be awarded to two individual winners, one of whom will be picked by the panel and the other by secondary school students in the audience.
Finalists’ research will be profiled in the Irish Independent.
If you would like to enter this competition, then make your submission before 5pm on Monday, 14 January 2013. The submission can be written (no more than 1,000 words) or audio-visual (no more than 10 minutes in length). It may be on behalf of a team of research students but if selected as a finalist, only one student may present.
The objective of this competition is the effective communication of research to a lay audience. Your submission should explain why what you are doing matters to Irish society or in a global context.
Simply email your submission to impact@hea.ie by the closing date of 5pm, 14 January 2013.
Previous winners of Making an Impact
‘Making An Impact’ is a competition jointly run by the Higher Education Authority and the Irish Independent which aims to highlight how research in Irish higher education institutions is changing aspects of Irish life.
The Making An Impact 2012 competiton winners were Kevin Roche (UCD) who was awarded the judges prize for his presentation 'Fast Fillings for Stronger Teeth', while the students in the audience voted and gave their prize of €2,500 to Fergus McAuliffe (UCC) for his presentation 'An Alternative to Septic Tanks'.
Pictured are competition winners Kevin Roche and Fergus McAuliffe
Making an Impact finalists 2012
In 2011, the winners were Dermot Donnelly (UL) for his research on the Virtual Lab in Classrooms, and Daniel O'Donovan (TCD) for his work on antidepressant drugs.
Pictured are John Hennessy (HEA), competition winner Dermot Donnelly, Kevin Myers (MC at the final), competition winner Daniel O'Donovan, and Geoff Lyons (Irish Independent).
Pictured are competition winner Aidan Quilligan, John Walsh (Irish Independent), competition winner Roisin O'Shea, and Michael Hennessey (HEA)