DAY ONE
10.30: Arrival and onsite registration
11.00: Meet the HRB teams
12.00: Lunch
13.00: Opening and welcome – Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll , Chief Executive – HRB
Grant Holders Conference 2025
Seeing around corners together. What's next for health and social care research?
2 min read - 13 Feb 2025
Our bi-annual conference that brings together our principal investigators and key players in Ireland’s health research ecosystem.
This event at the Sheraton Hotel Athlone will explore the theme “Looking around corners together – What’s next for health and social care research in Ireland.”
We want to discuss:
- What are the current as well as future challenges and opportunities at both the micro and macro level for health research.
- National and international developments in our education, and research and innovation systems, and how we systematically translate new findings into policy and practice in our healthcare systems.
- What cross-cutting lessons can we learn from fields such as implementation science, personalised medicine, cancer care, genomics and big data, the shift to community and social care.
- What will national and global health and social care research look like in the future?
And how all these factors could shape, enable or influence our future ambitions and investments in health research and the health research ecosystem.
The event will explore all the above in three themed sessions.
Theme 1: Setting the scene. What is happening from a regional, national, EU and international perspective and what changes are taking place in our health system, our education system, and the overall funding environment.
Theme 2: A Deeper dive. A look at emerging trends and/or blockages through the lens of implementation science and data collaboration with a selection of case studies from cross-cutting HRB funded projects.
Theme 3: The path ahead. What is next for health and social care research? From global to local, the HRB is in listening mode and wants your input.
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13:10: Session 1 – Chairperson – Dr John O Neill, Principal Officer – Health Research and Innovation Policy, Department of Health
13.15: Ester M.M. Cardinaal, PhD LLM, Researcher IQ Healthcare Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen – Yesterdays’ Actions Won’t Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges – Lessons (to be) learned
13.45: Professor Mark Lawler, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Digital Health Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, Queen’s University Belfast – The need to deliver research with impact – data as an enabler
14.15: Professor Helen Whelton, Head of College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork, Chief Academic Officer HSE South South West Hospital Group – Enhancing Patient Outcomes through Academic Health Science Systems: A Vision for Education, Research, and Innovation in Health and Social Care
14.45: Discussion session
15.15: Coffee break
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15:40: Session 2 – Chairperson – Dr Tracy Cunningham – HRB Board
15.45: Dr Laura Keyes, Director of the Centre for Implementation Research, University of Limerick – Embedding implementation science principles in health research from discovery to adoption
16.15: Four presentations from HRB Principal Investigators on emerging trends and challenges
16.15: Dr Laura Whelan, Lecturer in Human Genetics and Genomics and Project Manager Genomic Data Infrastructure Ireland, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences – A new era for Genomics in Ireland
16.25: Dr Sonya Deschênes PhD, Lecturer/Assistant Professor & Ad Astra Fellow University College Dublin – Using Secondary Data to Address Comorbidities and Improve Population Health & Wellbeing
16.35: Dr Conor Judge, Consultant Nephrologist, Electronic and Computer Engineer, PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Senior Lecturer in Applied Clinical Data Analytics at the University of Galway – Testing Artificial Intelligence Interventions with Pragmatic Trials
16.45: Professor Eoin Feeney, Co-national specialty director for Higher Specialist Training in Infectious Diseases at RCPI and a Clinical Professor at UCD – Emerging Global Health Threats – How can Ireland React?
16.55: Discussion Session
17.30: HRB Impact Award presentation
18.15: Break
19.00: Drinks Reception
20.30: Conference dinner (dress code: smart casual)
DAY TWO
07.00: Stretch and start
Theme three: The path ahead (what’s next for health and social care research)
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08:50: Session 3 – Chairperson – Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll – CEO HRB
09.00: Opening keynote: Dr Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO – Fit for purpose? The future of research systems and health and social care systems in an era of rapid change
09.45: Introduction to round table discussion and explain the task ahead for the morning.
In 2025, the HRB will develop a new five-year strategy (2026-2030). We want to consult with our research community as we start this process. During this roundtable discussion session it will be a great opportunity for you to contribute to our future strategy and share your ideas on the future of health and social care research through a series of structured questions. We would encourage you to think ambitiously, to look beyond your own specialty, research field and institution and to take consideration of a whole ‘system-based’ approach that can deliver optimal impact from our efforts and investments.
10.00: Roundtable discussion
11.30: Coffee break
12.00: Summary of findings from discussion session and opportunity to comment
12.30: HRB next steps
13.00: Close and lunch
Registration
HRB Grant Holders Conference 2025
2 min read - 13 Feb 2025
