Funding Awarded

Evaluation of a novel drug combination treatment for nephropathic cystinosis in a new cystinotic rat model.

Cystinosis is a rare disease that results in the build-up of cystine in all cells of the body. Cystine is a protein building block and normally the excess is moved out of cells. In cystinosis the transporter for cystine does not work and cystine builds up inside the cells and forms crystals which cause damage to all organs and...

Computational evaluation of morphologic tumour tissue features as diagnostic and prognostic predictors of lung cancer

Co-funded with Irish Cancer Society

Intensive Care Airway and Lung Microbiome Network ICALM Network

Hospital acquired pneumonia (HAP) is the most frequent infection acquired in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). ICU-related respiratory infections arise as a consequence of the processes of ICU care. Mechanical ventilation (MV) is potentially lifesaving, but also carries microorganisms into the lower airways, changing the native flora, and...

National intellectual Disability Supplement to The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing-Wave 4

IDS-TILDA is a longitudinal study researching ageing in Ireland among people with an intellectual disability (ID) aged 40 and over. This study is the first of its kind in Europe, and the only study able to directly compare the ageing of people with intellectual disability with the general ageing population through its linkage to The...

Vaccination: Knowledge is power

Over 3 million global deaths are avoided annually due to the existence of vaccines. In Ireland the state funded immunization program protects against 14 infectious diseases including HPV. However, we face a number of challenges with immunization. Alarmingly, in recent years uptake of vaccines has been waning. Perhaps due to complacency...

Health and social inequalities in the Mid-West

As there are many disadvantaged areas in the Mid-West, health and social inequalities are important issues locally. This is because deprivation is linked with poor health and poor access to healthcare. Under the Healthy Ireland Framework, taking actions to address health inequalities is a key priority. In the Mid-West, many...

Self-Harm and Suicide AwaREness ? SHARE

SHARE is based on outcomes of the HRB funded research programme: Improving Prediction and Risk Assessment of Suicide and Self-Harm (IMPRESS). The IMPRESS study aims to improve the knowledge base on predictive risk factors associated with repeated self-harm and suicide among high-risk groups of self-harm patients in Ireland. During the...

Postnatal Mental Health PARTNERship

It is estimated that 10-25% of mothers will experience a mental health problem following the birth of their baby. With approximately 63,900 births in Ireland each year (6), conservative figures would suggest that over 6390 mothers will experience a mental health problem in the postnatal period. For many mothers, their partner plays a...

Towards Recovery After Childbirth, through Knowledge: (ON TRACK)

The Maternal health And Maternal Morbidity in Ireland (MAMMI) study identified problems women had postpartum. We have provided information for women on physical problems, such as incontinence, and will now address other important issues. For example, 15% of women have anxiety during pregnancy, and 44% have pain during sex at 3 months...

Developing an on-line course for first-time mothers: ?Pathway to Birth?

Concern has been expressed globally at rising caesarean section (CS) rates with no evidence of any decrease in associated health problems for mothers and babies, indicating that many CSs are unnecessary, and can be harmful. We are at present running a pilot trial called "REDUCE"to see if a new intervention, based on research evidence,...

The Breakfast Club

The Breakfast Club is the story of diabetes in pregnancy in Ireland. In a weekly, serialized, online graphic novel, we will follow the lives of women attending a Breakfast Club for women who have received a diagnosis of diabetes during their pregnancy. We will explore their experiences, from having a Glucose Tolerance Test, to meeting...

Medtrack KEDS

"Health professionals are the lifeblood of the health system"(President M Robinson), yet our junior doctors (NCHD-trainees) continue to report that responses for improving their working conditions have had "little tangible change or impact on their day-to-day working lives and training experience?. The RCSI research team has...

Development of a Teaching Programme for the Junior Cycle Mental health and Mental Ill-Health Module

Great progress has been made nationally on destigmatising mental health but it has not yet become a topic that people are universally comfortable with. A major change in the Junior Cycle in 2018 is the introduction of Wellbeing which directly addresses youth mental health through Strand 4 in the new Social Personal and Health Education...

Development of Book About Mental Health Problems For Children and Adolescents

There has been steady improvements in the quality of information available to people about mental health issues but a challenge remains to communicate this fully to children and adolescents. Much of the existing information is text heavy and can be off-putting for this age group. Presenting this information so that it is accessible...

Citizen Science: The People's Trial

Randomised trials are instrumental in providing reliable and robust evidence on the benefits, harms and costs of health care, so that people can make informed choices. However, the general public?s understanding of randomised trials can be limited and ensuring public support for and participation in trials remains challenging. The...

Delivering a Reduction in the Development of Maternal Prenatal Stress: DIRECTMAPS

Pregnancy can be a stressful time during which many expectant mothers experience understandable worries and concerns. High levels of prenatal maternal stress are linked to several unfavourable conditions which can affect the health of the child at birth. Normal development of the central nervous system is also at risk during the early...

Piloting the Community Engaged Scholars Program in Ireland

Public and patient involvement in health research is not embedded in Irish Universities. As part of the PPI Ignite Awards scheme the HRB have funded 5 Irish Universities to demonstrate the value of PPI and champion this approach in Ireland. PPI involves public/patients working in partnership with researchers in setting research...

The GENIE fellowship: Gauging the Effectiveness of Novel computer-support technologies for Implementing Evidence in healthcare

Healthcare professionals must keep pace with a rapidly growing knowledge base. By 2020, the quantity of medical evidence is expected to double every 73 days. Typically, healthcare professionals leverage 'systematic review' articles to tackle this issue. A systematic review is a consolidated summary of evidence that healthcare...

Exploring the immunome of oesophageal adenocarcinoma using bioinformatics to assess and predict responses to neoadjuvant therapy (Immune-AEGIS)

The immune system is made up of cells that are designed to protect the body from infection and disease, like cancer. However, in patients with cancer, the immune system often does not do this well. Recently, a new treatment for cancer has been tested - called immunotherapy, which uses the patient?s own immune system to fight the...

Promoting Education and Research Knowledge (PERK)

THE PROBLEM Cancer of the oesophagus (food pipe) is an aggressive type of cancer, and has a low survival rate. It is usually diagnosed at a late stage, often due to a lack of knowledge of underlying symptoms which can be mild, including heartburn, bloating and problems swallowing. Oesophageal cancer is not as well known as some other...

Rheumatoid Arthritis Patient Awareness INitiative (RA-PAIN)

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a common autoimmune condition that causes disability for patient's day-to-day tasks. New medications that target bad molecules or cells improve outcomes, however responses may be limited or side effects may occur. Who will develop RA, get severe disease or respond to current treatments is not known. Studies...

Using photovoice to enhance knowledge exchange and dissemination

The EOLAS programmes are information and learning programmes for people with experience of psychosis and their family members. The programmes have been co-produced and are co-delivered by peer and clinician facilitators in partnership with mental health clinicians. Such service user and family member involvement in the design and...

CHErIsH- KEDS

This CHErIsH-KEDS application has two aims: to increase capacity in translation of research into practice in Ireland and to develop a knowledge exchange strategy for the future roll out of CHErIsH across different settings in primary care. This application builds on the existing study, the CHErIsH study. The CHErIsH study is funded...

How to Use TILDA Data - Webinar, Seminar and Workshop Series

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) was established in 2006 with baseline data collection commencing in 2009. TILDA collects data in a series of data collection waves. The data is collected through a computer-assisted personal interview and a self-completion questionnaire once every two years with a comprehensive health...

Co-Designing, Pre-Testing and Refining an Intervention Programme to Support Parent-Adolescent Communication about Shared Self-Management Responsibilities in Type I Diabetes

This knowledge exchange activity aims to work together with young people with Type 1 Diabetes (TID), parents of young people with TID, professionals (from a range of disciplines e.g. diabetes nurse specialists, psychologists, consultant paediatric endocrinologists) and community advocates (e.g. Diabetes Ireland) to codesign, pre-test...

Collecting and using data about ethnicity in healthcare -a drama

Ireland has a long history of emigration. More recently, we have inward migration. Census 2016 found that 17% of the population were born outside Ireland. This means that there are different minority ethnic groups in our country, in addition the Irish Travellers. The Health Service Executive wants to gather information on the ethnic...

The APART Study Public Participation Initiative for Knowledge Exchange

The APART Study is exploring an important, low-cost intervention that may limit bone loss associated with initiation of antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV. Results from this trial may have significant implications for how HIV is managed both in Ireland and internationally. We will use this KEDS award to develop a research partnership...

Real Talk with Real Mums

?Real Talk with Real Mums? is a 10-episode podcast series looking at the issues of everyday pregnancy with medical professionals and the real women who have gone through the pregnancy journey. Each episode of c.30 minutes will tackle a different topic, from exercise in pregnancy (with a Physiotherapist), to mental health issues in...

Reducing Maternal Stress in Ireland

Stress experienced by women during pregnancy and up to two years after the baby is born can have negative consequences for the mother and the child. Strategies and guidelines to reduce stress experienced during pregnancy and early parenthood is lacking in Ireland. In this project the research team will develop an intervention...

Economics of palliative care: from international evidence to Irish policy

Palliative care is specialised care for people with serious and complex illness. Its goal is to improve quality of life for patients and families, and studies show that it generally achieves this goal. Palliative care access is strong in Ireland by international standards but there are still significant gaps in services and...

Investigating the iceberg model of self-harm and suicide in children, adolescents and young adults: a multi-methods study of predictors of onset, escalation and premature mortality

Rates of self-harm among children, adolescents and young adults in Ireland have increased sharply in the past decade and rates of youth suicide remain high. Self-harm and suicide have been described as an "iceberg", with the rare event of suicide as the tip of the iceberg. Beneath this are higher rates of self-harm resulting in...

TeamTalk: Interactive Resource Hub for Healthcare Teams

Healthcare teams who are interested in improving how they work together to deliver better patient care often struggle to find the time to learn and implement new practices. Teams rarely have the opportunity to attend training courses or other learning events together. This makes it difficult to transfer their newly acquired knowledge...

Working with the Research Community: Training and a Toolkit for Patients & Members of the Public

The PPI Ignite Programme at Trinity College Dublin is focused on building capacity for public and patient involvement in health research, with a particular emphasis on improving the quality of approaches. One of 10 Ignite Partners, the Medical Research Charities Group (MRCG), hosts a Public Patient Involvement (PPI) Shared Learning...

Disseminating, Engaging, and Sharing Knowledge (DESK):patient informed resource for understanding our research

Based on the findings of the research conducted during our HRB Research Leader's Award, the aim of the proposed KEDS project is to effectively disseminate the finding of our research to chronic pain patients and the general public. Sharing research findings with the general public is very important but can be difficult to get right; we...

A Patient Education Programme in Health Research & Innovation

Well informed patients and carers have a key role to play in the design and implementation of person-centered healthcare and research. Whilst patients are eager to have better and safer health products and innovations, they are often unaware of the complex nature of how new health innovations are researched, developed and made...

The patient is part of the answer - don't leave us out in the cold!

This application aims to produce a documentary that explains public and patient involvement in health research to the general public and encourages more people to become involved with researchers. Known as PPI, public and patient involvement means that people who are likely to be affected by research results are directly involved in...

Promoting National Awareness of Thrombosis in Pregnancy.

Women who are pregnant have a higher chance of developing blood clots (thrombosis) that can cause serious ill-health and can be fatal. Therefore, it is incredibly important that women who are pregnant, women of childbearing age and their families are aware of their risk factors for thrombosis in pregnancy. In the HRB-funded "HIGHLOW"...

Access to primary and emergency care for children with intellectual disabilities: utilisation, decision making, parental preferences and disparities

The aim of this research is to learn about the inequalities faced by children with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Ireland in relation to healthcare and to find out the reasons why these inequalities occur. In many other countries around the world, children with ID do not receive the same standard of healthcare as children without...

Maximising collaboration to expedite positive change in the assessment process that determines physiotherapy students' readiness for independent practice

Assessment of student physiotherapists in the clinical environment is a critical part of their education which determines their readiness for independent clinical practice once qualified. Therefore it has significant implications for patient safety and quality of service delivery. Yet, research and experience highlight many challenges...

LoVIC-Kids: Improving public awareness of abnormal bleeding symptoms

Congenital bleeding disorders (CBD) may result in increased bleeding at times of injury, surgery, childbirth or with periods (menstrual bleeding). Although an estimated 1-2% of the population are affected by CBD, most people are unaware that their bleeding symptoms are abnormal. In addition, there is limited awareness amongst many...

"Let's Talk About" Series

Researchers in dementia at NUI Galway are producing important research insights into many aspects of dementia care in Ireland, specifically: resource allocation decision-making; support structures for family carers; and how people with dementia are treated within the care system. The focus is now turning to sharing the results...

Using visual media to communicate complex information

Services in Ireland for people with dementia are poorly developed. The main partnership award aims to (i) describe current dementia services across all sectors and (ii) ask people with dementia, carers, health workers and managers about the ideal level and type of service provision for people with dementia who have different needs and...

Factors influencing decision-making for caesarean section

The rising rate of caesarean section (CS) has become a growing concern worldwide, with limited justification of the rising trend. Understanding the factors that influence the rise in CS is important because obstetricians and midwives are directly involved in the decision to perform a CS and are the key drivers to achieving the remedial...

The Frail Brain and the Frail Body: Impact of FRAILty and COGnitive impairment on trajectories, patterns and costs in care in old age

Informing Chronic Kidney Disease health policy in Ireland: Linkage of large datasets to study the interaction between ageing and kidney

The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) is a remarkable study undertaken in Ireland, which invited over 8,500 people aged 50 and over to participate at wave 1 between 2009 and 2011. Individuals who agreed to take part were subsequently invited to present for a comprehensive health assessment. This study is invaluable to the...

Enhancing ?The Model for Dementia Palliative Care Project? by targeting potential model users with innovative Knowledge, Transfer and Exchange activities.

This KEDS application will further enhance Knowledge, Transfer and Exchange (KTE) activities arising from 'The Model for Dementia Palliative Care Project', by supporting new connections with key groups, through novel activities and outputs. The active project will develop a new service delivery model for palliative care for people...

What the Researcher and the Dentist want to share, supporting knowledge dissemination

Research is ongoing to monitor the oral health of the Irish population, the uptake of dental services, and targeting of services to specific groups most in need. Results of such research inform policy makers in the Department of Health with respect to issues such as community water fluoridation and recommendations on the use of...

HPV associated disease: shaping the future prevention and management pathway

Infection with HPV is the most important cause of cervical cancer. As such, HPV testing is now being introduced as part of cervical cancer screening. HPV is also involved in the development of other anogenital cancers, which include: vulvar, vaginal, anal and penile cancers. HPV vaccination will help reduce the burden of HPV-associated...

Scaling up the Family Carer Decision Support Intervention: A transnational effectiveness-implementation evaluation

The Family Carer Decision Support (FCDS) intervention has been designed to inform family carers about end of life care options available to a person living with advanced dementia. The effect of the FCDS was demonstrated through a study that employed a cluster randomized control trial involving 24 care homes located in the United...

European eHealth care model for rare neurodegenerative diseases

Rare neurodegenerative disorders (RND) like Huntington?s Disease (HD) require multidisciplinary care teams which are in short supply. Given the devastating consequences of RNDs for the individual patient and their families there is an urgent need to develop innovative ways to ensure access to best practices and established care...

Multi-Domain Lifestyle Targets for Improving ProgNOsis in Huntington?s Disease

Huntington?s Disease (HD) is a progressive, life-limiting neurodegenerative disease. It has devastating consequences for the individual and their families. No current treatment to modify the course of the disease exists. Improved evidence-based symptom assessment is crucial to optimising disease management. This project aims to...

Control of neuronal proteostasis by stress-induced transfer RNA fragments (?tiRNA?) as a common stress pathway across neurodegenerative disorders.

This application is for supplemental funding through PA-18-591 for the recently funded grant (1R01AG058476-01), entitled ?Dysfunction of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway as a common mechanism of neurodegeneration,? and the JPND project to support collaborative studies between Dr. Finkbeiner?s lab (Gladstone) and the JPND RNA NEURO...

Autophagy induction as a novel therapeutic strategy for MSD

The lysosomal degradation pathway of autophagy has a crucial role in different pathophysiological conditions, such as infection, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer and ageing. In particular, autophagy plays an important role in the pathophysiology of a family of inborn errors of metabolism due to defect in the activity of lysosomal...

The microbiome as an environmental trigger for autoimmune epilepsy (MICA)

Autoimmune epilepsy is a rare form of drug-resistant epilepsy characterised by frequent seizures in later life. Patients may respond to immune therapy, but causation of disease is poorly understood, and more targeted treatments are required. This gap in knowledge is the major priority for epilepsy specialists, and the area of greatest...

Elucidation of the role of SARM1 in retinal homeostasis and oxidative stress induced retinal degeneration

Photoreceptor cells found in the back of our eyes convert light into signals that allow us to see. Death of these cells and the cells that nourish them, called RPE cells, is termed retinal degeneration and is characteristic of blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa. Millions of people...

Towards novel anti-infective with enhanced wound-healing for diabetic foot infections : Co2 releasing star shaped micro biocidal polymers

It is estimated that 422 million people worldwide are living with diabetes and among them, a common and serious problem is the development of diabetic foot infection. One in five patients with diabetes are hospitalised with a diabetic foot wound (DFW) at least once in their lives. Infected DFWs are treated by removal of infected tissue...

Combining Electrochemotherapy with a Toll Like receptor agonist for the treatment of lung cancer

Successful cancer treatment aims to totally eliminate the entire tumour and the risk of recurrence. Treatment currently relies on removal of the primary tumour by surgery or radiotherapy followed by control of the remaining dispersed cancer cells in the whole body usually by chemotherapy. At the Cork Cancer Research Centre (CCRC) we...

Preoperative Exercise to Improve Fitness in Patients Undergoing Complex Surgery for Cancer of the Lung or Oesophagus

Treatment for people with cancer of the lung or the oesophagus (food-pipe) often involves surgery. This surgery is complex and there is a high risk that patients will develop severe complications afterwards, mainly lung or heart problems, leading to a longer hospital stay and higher hospital costs, and impacting greatly on recovery and...

Evaluation of the role of MxA and ISGylation in chemosensitivity in oesophageal cancer

Many oesophageal cancers develop resistance to the drugs currently used to treat this disease. This allows the cancer cells to survive and the cancer can come back again at variable times after the initial treatment. Research already performed by this group has identified genetic differences between cancer cells that respond well to...

Incorporation of sensor technology to provide clinical meaningfulness for existing standardised measurement scales in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a progressive and ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure. People with ALS experience loss of mobility and arm function, breathlessness and chest infections, loss of speech and swallow and in 30-50%, cognitive and behavioural...

Novel Neurophysical Biomarkers of Heterogeneous Network Degeneration in Motor Neuron Disease for Quantifying the Progression and Outcome in Clinical Trials

Motor Neurone Disease (MND)/Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a terminal neurological condition in which the neurones (neural cells) that control movement degenerate. Despite encouraging results from studies in animals, translation of new treatments to humans has been disappointing. The aim of this study is to provide scientific...

Evaluating a novel macrolide based early intervention in the clinical management of chronic infections and inflammation in Cystic Fibrosis

Chronic persistent respiratory disease is a leading cause of death worldwide. Despite years of global research, the clinical management of respiratory disease, including the life-limiting genetic disease cystic fibrosis (CF), remains a significant challenge. Treatment options are extremely limited, due in part to the increased pathogen...

Gold-drug: Targeting a novel dual inhibitor drug with gold nanoparticles for improving radiation response in oesophageal cancer

Oesophageal cancer (cancer of the food pipe) has low survival rates and a very poor response to treatment. Sadly, this cancer type is on the rise in Ireland and is linked with increasing obesity rates. Unlike many other cancer types, we are still only using treatments that have existed for decades - chemotherapy drugs with radiation...

The role of sialylated-alpha-1 antitrypsin in resolution of acute and chronic inflammation

Alpha-1-antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency (AATD) is a hereditary disorder that results in the rapid progression of lung disease, especially in smokers. Specific treatment for this disorder is available in the form of weekly intravenous injections of AAT. This is referred to as augmentation therapy and studies have shown that augmentation...

Compound library screening in a zebrafish model of MSD to identify novel therapeutic compounds

Multiple Sulfatase Deficiency (MSD) is currently an untreatable disease and while we know some of the processes inside cells that cause or influence the disease, there is still much to be understood. While progress has been made from studying simple cell culture systems, this does not tell us about how different disease changes may...

Evidence Synthesis Ireland

Health care decisions should be based on the combination of the full amount of information that is available rather than relying on the convenient selection of one or more individual pieces of information, or studies. Evidence synthesis methods seek to establish the overall balance of information on a given topic, and are based on...

Good vigilance practice in pregnancy: A multistakeholder approach to optimising the effectiveness of risk minimisation measures to prevent harms from teratogenic medicines

When new medicines are approved for use in the general population the drug company responsible for the medicine has to make sure that certain measures are in place to avoid unnecessary harm. These are known as risk minimisation measures (RMMs). This is particularly important when the medicine may cause harmful effects to an unborn...

Co-producing health and well-being in partnership with patients, families and communities: the role of the epilepsy patient portal

Claire a 35 year old teacher with a 10 year history of epilepsy attends the Galway University Hospital (GUH) where an electronic patient record (EPR) is used by the epilepsy service. Recently on a weekend trip to Waterford, Claire had a seizure resulting in a fall in the street and a minor injury. She was taken to the emergency...

Enhancing existing formal home support to improve and maintain functional status in older adults: A feasibility study on the implementation of the Care to Move (CTM) programme

Ireland has an increasing ageing population and this has created the need for better and more integrated health and social care services. The benefits of physical activity for all ages are widely known. Physical activity programmes have been shown to improve older adults’ health and well-being and reduce falls, enabling the older adult...

Loneliness and health: the moderating role of befriending services.

Befriending services deliver companionship to older adults through regular volunteer visits. ALONE is a charitable organisation providing befriending services to older adults in Ireland. It is the mission statement of ALONE to use befriending to reduce the negative impact loneliness has on health, but evidence for this use of...

Premature Ageing in long-Term Homeless adults (PATH)

The number of homeless adults in Ireland is rising. Homeless people have more chronic illnesses and a shorter
life-expectancy than people who have somewhere secure to live. We have carried out a pilot study showing that
homeless people have dementia, frailty and other diseases associated with ageing at a much younger age...

Unlocking the potential of healthcare complaints to improve hospital care (UP-CIC)

Most assessments of quality of care in Irish healthcare services are focused on healthcare workers’ opinions, statistics (e.g., how many patients got infections), or investigating large errors. However, these assessments fail to consider patients’ unique insights into quality of care and support improvement in services. For example,...

I-PARC (Ireland’s Physical Activity Research Collaboration): Bridging the research to action gap to support the implementation of the National Physical Activity Plan

The purpose of this research is to develop a bespoke research collaboration ‘I-PARC’ (Irish – Physical Activity Research Collaboration) to support Get Ireland Active! the National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP)1. I-PARC will bring together researchers, policy makers and practitioners from physical activity (PA) to establish how best to...

How can a multi-disciplinary prescribing strategy support appropriate prescribing of oral nutritional supplements (ONS) by Irish general practitioners (GPs)?

Malnutrition is a major burden to the Irish health service as malnourished patients have poorer health and are more expensive to treat than patients who are well-nourished. The annual cost of healthcare associated with malnutrition is approximately €1.4 billion in Ireland (10% of our total healthcare budget). Oral nutritional...

Doctoral program in youth mental health leadership (The YouLead Program)

This doctoral training program focuses on youth mental health research. Mental health difficulties (including depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia) account for approximately half of all causes of disability in individuals under the age of 35. Despite the fact that access to treatment is strongly associated with reduced risk...

"Right Care": a programme of research to enhance safe and appropriate care for older patients in Ireland

We propose a structured PhD training programme for multi-disciplinary health researchers on the topic of “Right Care” for older people. This research programme will examine how right care can be given at the right time and in the right setting, so that older people get the greatest benefit and the lowest harm from health interventions....

Neonatal Brain Injury Consortium Ireland

Neonatal brain injury has serious consequences including problems with development and cerebral palsy. Cooling or Hypothermia therapy is the only treatment available but half of all babies still have brain injury. All babies have detailed tests of their brain function using brain imaging and brainwave monitoring. They also have...

Managing complex multimorbidity in primary care: a multidisciplnary doctoral training programme

This application outlines a Structured Doctoral Training Programme for four PhD students with clinical and research backgrounds. The focus is on primary care delivery for patients who are referred to as having complex multimorbidity, which means that they have multiple long term conditions and are often on ten or more regular...

Cancer Prevention Fellowship 2018

Research Programme for mid-career researchers working in Republic of Ireland (RoI) to become NCI Cancer Prevention Fellows at the prestigious National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the USA.
This programme provides training at post-doctorate level from the health professions, biomedical, and behavioural sciences to become leaders in the...

Manganese enhanced MRI as an early technique for lung cancer

The objective of the project is to prove that the manganese enhanced MRI (MEMRI) technique could help to detect early-stage cancers and metastases in lungs which could be treated rapidly with a good prognosis. This patient friendly and inexpensive diagnostic technique will be tested in preclinical models and presented to clinicians to...

Label free monitoring of fibrinogen levels in human blood plasma using asymmetric imides

The project aims to develop new methodologies for analysis of blood plasma samples using vibration spectroscopy (infrared and Raman spectroscopy) as alternative to the time consuming, costly and poorly reliable Clauss assay, commonly used in hospitals. Two different aspects will be addressed, (i) requirement for optimisation of...

Communicating and promoting SAFE medicines use in Ireland

The likelihood of side effects of medicines, drug interactions and potentially inappropriate prescribing increase with the increasing number of medicines people take. Taking multiple medicines at the same time is common in people age 65 year olds or older with six in every ten in this age group. Also, around one in ten of those aged 65...

Interact for Health: Increasing integrated knowledge translation capacity for impact

Although the Health Behaviour Change Research Group (HBCRG) has engaged with the HSE Health and Wellbeing (H&W) Division as health partners on a number of activities to date, we believe there is significant potential for enhanced knowledge exchange between these two groups. Additionally, integrated Knowledge Translation (iKT)...

The biology of mood: What brain imaging and genetic studies tell us about Bipolar Disorder

This project aims to translate the known biology of bipolar disorder, enhance the accessibility of the latest discoveries and interpret the meaning and relevance to individuals with bipolar disorder, their families, carers and health professionals that are not research active. To complement the current emphasis on clinical aspects of...

The youth mental health animation creation project

This KEDS award will be used to create animations about young people's mental health that will be embedded into the youth mental health website, ReachOut.com.



This project will involve crafting key messages from this study into short narratives using direct quotes from the research interviews conducted for this...

Brain superheroes and villains

We are a group of neuroscientists, funded by the HRB, who aim to test and develop novel drugs for brain related illnesses. We are excited about disseminating the value of work like ours and, in 2012, were delighted to be awarded our first HRB Knowledge Exchange and Dissemination Scheme (KEDS), which consisted of three activities...

Learning about trials - for children, by children

This project will consist of the development of new resources for teaching primary school children (aged 10-12) about why we need trials and how trials work, with a view to being more widely used throughout the trial community. These resources will align with the START (Schools Teaching Awareness of Randomised Trials) Competition,...

Family carer knowledge exchange project

We are interested in how family carers of people with dementia develop and maintain resilience in the care giving role and we are designing a project to help family carers to be more resilient and to better cope with the demands of care giving. As a team of researchers, we have reviewed studies of family carers'experiences in other...

Community exercise

It is recognised that exercise benefits people living with chronic disease. The CRF at St James's Hospital exercise physiology suite is used by research studies examining the role of exercise training for patients with chronic disease. These exercise trials support patients to exercise during structured supervised exercise classes and...

Driving policy with data: A longterm sustainable specialist service for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The JPND-funded project ALS-CarE is coordinated by the Irish partner, and has collected detailed information across 5 different countries about the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patient and caregiver journey from ALS diagnosis through to end of life. In Ireland, we have collected extensive quantitiative and qualitative...

The StrokeCog partnership: effective intervention through collaboration

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide and will increase considerably in coming decades as people live for longer. Many people are aware of physical disabilities after stroke, but are less aware of cognitive problems. These include difficulties with memory, concentration and abstract thinking, often experienced as...

Non-motor symptoms in dystonia and musician's dystonia

Our multidisciplinary Irish Dystonia Research Group, combining the expertise of Bioengineers in Trinity College Dublin and a network of Clinical Neurologists, has been working to determine the cause of a disabling movement disorder, adult onset dystonia, characterised by abnormal postures and excessive muscle activity. The causes of...

Evidence to Support Prevention Implementation and Translation - Knowledge Translation (ESPRIT-KT)

This application adds to a larger HRB Research Leader Award about improving care for people with diabetes in Ireland. The goal of the KEDS project is to connect people who do research with people who make decisions about our national health policy so they can learn from each other and work together to improve the health of the...

Developing a website for public awareness about computer use in aphasia rehabilitation

Aphasia is a language disorder which occurs in 1 in 3 people after stroke. It can impact on a person's ability to produce and understand spoken and written language. People with aphasia have had limited opportunities to have their voices heard within Irish stroke research.



This research project has already engaged...

The Art of Pregnancy

The Art of Pregnancy is an exciting and ambitious public outreach exhibition and programme supported by the HRB Mother and Baby CTN togther with the Science Gallery Dublin as a key partner.

For this project we want to commission (via an open call process) a group of artists to create works inspired by the wide ranging areas of...

Speaking Up About Safety (SUAS)

Speaking up about safety concerns is an important aspect of a healthcare professional's role. Our research has shown that in comparison to nurses, junior doctors are particularly poor at speaking up and tend not to report incidents and adverse events, in many cases because they believe it is not their responsibility to do so. Yet, a...

Our voices, our impact

Wave 3 KEDS will build on previous success by recruiting actors with ID to develop DVD and on-line resources comprising scenes that illustrate key IDS-TILDA wave 3 findings. Feedback from wave 3 indicates that participants would like to receive the findings in DVD format and IDS-TILDA wishes to respond to the specific dissemination...

Brain, mind and psychosis: Engaging young people in learning about research

Great progress has been made over the past few years in "destigmatising" mental illness and this has been particularly successful for conditions such as depression and anxiety. However there still remains a great lack of knowledge about psychosis. This lack of knowledge can lead to stigma and fear and can prevent young people coming...

The LinKT (Linking into Knowledge Translation) project: connecting, integrating and translating evidence to make a difference for families

Increasing evidence highlights the effectiveness of early intervention and prevention parenting interventions for improving the mental health and wellbeing of parents and children in the earliest years. However, these are often complex, difficult to implement effectively and fail to reach the most vulnerable families. Accessible,...

Development of an online cancer genetics educational resource for undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare learners

Genetic testing is becoming cheaper and easier to perform. As such, it is being performed more and more frequently; to help explain why people have developed cancer, or to try to identify genetic changes in their tumours to which novel drugs can be targeted. Genetic testing may also help identify individuals at risk of cancer,...

Pathfinder: Parental information on therapeutic hypothermia followIng neonatal encephalopathy

Neonatal brain injury can have devastating outcomes for the baby and their family and may result in longterm disability. The only treatment available is whole body cooling started within a few hours of birth. Babies also require intensive care to support their lungs, heart and kidneys. We will develop an educational toolkit including...

Let's talk - and act - about adherence in multimorbidity - a teaching and learning resource for general practice

More than half of those over the age of 65 live with more than one chronic condition. This is known as multimorbidity (MM). The prevalence of MM increases with age and is more common in less well off patients. Using muliple medications i.e. polypharmacy, is the norm in MM and many do not take their medications as prescribed i.e....

Cracking the mysteries of cancer immunotherapies - e.courses for oncology healthcare professionals

The new therapies for cancer that target the immune system have revolutionised cancer care in recent times. The treatment of melanoma, leukaemia and other malignancies has been transformed by these immune modulating drugs. However, few oncology clinicians or oncology specialist nurses have backgrounds in immunology or immune...

The stressed brain & depression

Understanding depression is challenging both for professionals and for the public. It is complex and poorly conceptualized. Clinical depression involves biological, psychological and social causes that all contribute to the expression of depression in each individual sufferer. Trauma, especially early in life when body systems are...

CERVIVA: The HPV educate project

The goal of this CERVIVA HPV Educate Project is to provide accurate and reliable information relating to HPV and HPV associated diseases, to create awareness and educate the public, health care professionals and healthcare providers on public health issues related to HPV associated diseases and on the specific research programmes...

Overweight & obesity in Ireland: Translating policy into action

The launch in 2016 of "A healthy weight for Ireland", the Government's National Obesity Policy and Action Plan, 2016-2025 represents an important milestone in Ireland's response to ongoing epidemic of overweight and obesity in children and adults. Researchers in the HRB Centre for Health & Diet (CHDR) generated key evidence which...

Listening to the newborn brain

This outreach programme will provide dedicated public information and education resources on the neonatal brain stethoscope device, which aims to facilitate interrogation of the neonatal brain and improve the quality and accuracy of the diagnosis brain injuries, reduce the stress of parents with babies in the NICU and establish the...

Expert forum to advance the potential of IL-1 family members as novel therapeutics in IBD

Current treatment strategies for Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are ineffective in a large number of patients. Although the reasons for this are not fully understood, it seems likely to reflect the complex nature of chronic intestinal inflammation. Recent advances in our understanding...

Supporting individuals and organisations involved in implementation of community water fluoridation

The Fluoride And Caring for Children's Teeth (FACCT) study was initiated to determine the effect of the change in water fluoridation policy (2007) on dental caries (tooth decay) and enamel fluorosis (marks on tooth enamel which are associated with fluoride) in Irish children, while also considering the change in policy on the use of...

PPI Ignite Award - National University of Ireland Galway

The Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) Ignite Awards aim to promote PPI in health research in Ireland. Our NUI Galway Primary Care PPI group of patients and members of the public were asked to describe what a successful PPI Ignite project would look like (Figure 3). They responded by saying that success would be creating an...

PPI Ignite Award - University College Dublin

UCD in collaboration with 10 partner organisations will develop a PPI network and resource platform called UCD PPI Ignite Connect that will seek to firmly embed patient and public involvement in UCD's research,learning and teaching activities and in its academic processes. The partner organisations include the Ireland East Hospital...

PPI Ignite Award - Dublin City University

Patient and public involvement means carrying out research with or by members of the public rather than to, about or for them. This PPI Ignite award plans to improve patient and public involvement in health and social care research. We will do this by bringing people who use health services (patients, carers, and/or their...

PPI Ignite Award - University of Limerick

PPI Ignite at the University of Limerick will serve as a rallying point within the university and the wider community it serves, to build capacity for research conducted  "with" or "by" patients and members of the public rather than "to", "about" or "for" them. PPI Ignite UL will accomplish this among a coalition of academic,...

PPI Ignite Award - Trinity College Dublin

Research is considered "engaged" when it is developed in collaboration with patients, community members and partnering organisations rather than for or about them. Such public and patient involvement improves the relevancy of the research question, the quality of the approach, and the likelihood that what is discovered through the...