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

Chief Executive, Health Research Board

09:10 Ms Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Minister for Health (tbc)

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

09:20 Keynote

Dr Fergal Lynch, former Secretary General of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth

09:40 Keynote: Defining features of an effective evidence ecosystem

Dr John Lavis, Director, McMaster Health Forum, Canada

10:00 Lenora Harty, Assistant Principal, Strategic Policy & Research Engagement Unit at Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

10:20 Q&A

11:00 Coffee

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)

11:30 R/ESSA project and findings on strengths and gaps in the evidence ecosystem for health policymaking in Ireland

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

12:00 Case studies

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

Speaker tbc

12:45 Q&A

13:15 Lunch

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

Chair Muiris O Connor, Assistant Secretary, Department of Health

14:00 tbc

14:25 Jonathan Breckon, Independent consultant and knowledge mobiliser

14:50 Q&A

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

15:15 Sum up / rapporteur

Mary Doyle, MRIA, RIA Secretary for Policy and International Relations

15:30 Panel Discussion

Panel members to be confirmed

16:15 Close: Chief Executive, HRB