HRB National Conference 2025

The event will explore how to advance evidence-informed policy for health and social care in Ireland. By bringing together a wide range of stakeholders from Ireland and abroad, this event aims to instil the importance of strengthening evidence informed decision-making as well as the need for a robust evidence ecosystem. Speakers will illustrate through practical examples where this is working and consider how critical gaps can be addressed.

The programme will focus on key foundational concepts and challenges for evidence informed decision-making, while exploring how these are addressed in real-world studies. The event will bring together health and social care decision-makers across Government departments health care professionals and the academic research community.

Programme outline 

08:00 Registration

09:00 Welcome

Dr Gráinne Gorman, Chief Executive, Health Research Board

09:10 Session 1: Evidence-informed policy making and the need for a fit-for-purpose evidence ecosystem

This session will address the role of evidence in the policy cycle and type of questions policy/decision makers want answers to. What is an evidence ecosystem and what do we mean by evidence (and best available evidence). What have we learned about the demand side, supply side and the roles of intermediaries/funders.

Chair Mr Barry Vaughan, Principal Officer, Social Policy Division of the Department of the Taoiseach

09:10 Keynote speaker: Dr Fergal Lynch, former Secretary General of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

Evidence-informed policy making: Reflections on the Irish context

09:30 Keynote speaker: Dr John Lavis, Director, McMaster Health Forum, Canada

Features of an effective evidence ecosystem

09:50 Ms Leonora Harty, Assistant Principal, Strategic Policy & Research Engagement Unit at Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

Research Evidence in Policy Development: Context and Policy Perspective

10:10 Q&A

10:40 Coffee

11:10 Session 2: Evidence informed policy making – What works and where are the gaps?

This session will look Rapid Evidence Support System Assessment: Analysis, highlighting key findings for policymaking in health in Ireland, and contextualising the findings within the wider suite of learnings from other R/ESSAs worldwide. It will also feature case studies to reflect on approaches, tools, structures, infra processes or otherwise for evidence-informed policy making.

Chair Dr Tracy Cunningham, Chairperson, Health Research Board (HRB)

11:10 Dr Barbara Whelan, Acting Programme Manager and Research Fellow at Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland, based at University of Galway

A Rapid Evidence Support System Assessment (RESSA): Strengthening the evidence support system for health policymaking

11:40 Case studies

Mr Brian Galvin, Programme Manager for Drug and Alcohol Research, HRB Evidence Centre

Policy and research perspectives on substance use: a knowledge bridging event

Mr Christopher Ryan, Head of Strategic Research & Evaluation in the Department of Health 

Evidence to Implementation: a case study on GP services

12:30 Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

12:45 Q&A

13:15 Lunch

14.00 Session 3 Enablers and constraints that are required to embed evidence for policy into organisational structures and routine practices

Chair Mr Muiris O Connor, Assistant Secretary, Department of Health

14:00 Dr Anastasia Deligkiaouri, Policy Analyst at the Joint Research Centre (JRC)-European Commission

Capacity Building on Evidence Informed Policymaking for sustainable EIPM ecosystems

14:25 Mr Stephane Jacobzone, Senior Adviser OECD Public Management and Budgeting

Ensuring evidence feeds into effective interventions: Good practices from OECD countries

14:50 Q&A

15.15 Session 4 What have we learned and where to from here?

15:15 Dr Claire O’Connell, Science Writer 

Sum up / rapporteur

15:30 Panel Discussion

Dr Jennifer Brennan, Research & Innovation Strategy Lead at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment

Dr John Lavis, Director, McMaster Health Forum, Canada

Dr Teresa Maguire, Director of Research Strategy and Funding, HRB

Prof Mary Horgan, interim Chief Medical Officer and Professor of Infectious Diseases at UCD and Mater Misericordiae University Hospital

16:15 Close: Dr Gráinne Gorman, Chief Executive, HRB