Dr Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki

Director General of Strategic Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health

Dr Liisa-Maria Voipio-Pulkki is currently serving as the Director General of Strategic Affairs and Chief Medical Officer of the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

She joined the Ministry in 2010 as the Director of the Health Care Group, concentrating on the health system performance and hospital reform issues. Previously she was employed as the Senior Medical Adviser of the Finnish Association of Local and Regional Authorities from 2004-2009, Chief of Emergency and Acute Care of the Helsinki University Hospital District from 2000-2004 and as a specialist and Adjunct Professor of Medicine in the University of Turku, Finland.

Since 2014 she has been actively involved in the Finnish Government´s “Health Growth Strategy” of personalized medicine, supporting the establishment of hospital biobanks, the national genome center and the implementation of the new act on secondary use of health and social data. Since 2017 she has chaired the Steering Committee of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, a WHO hosted partnership supporting evidence-informed health policy making. Most recently, she has been actively involved in the the Finnish EU Council Presidency during the second half of 2019.

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll

Chief Executive Officer, Health Research Board

Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll was the Director of Research Strategy and Funding at the HRB, with responsibility for a budget of approximately €40 million per annum and an awards portfolio of approximately €150m. Before being appointed Director of Funding, she was Head of Policy, Evaluation and External Relations at the HRB.

She worked as a researcher in academia and industry before moving into policy research, first with the Royal Society in London and then with the Wellcome Trust. She also spent time in South Africa where she worked on the development of a national research and technology foresight study.

She is a member of several national and international groups, including the Executive Committee of IC PerMed and the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine, which she chaired for two years. Mairéad is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of London.

Dr Anne Cody

Head of Investigator-led Grants, Research Careers and Enablers, Health Research Board

Dr Anne Cody has a background in cell biology and spent ten years as a researcher in Germany and Ireland. She has been working with the Health Research Board’s research funding function in a variety of roles over the last 18 years. During this time she has gained experience in a broad spectrum of types of research and funding instruments, and worked with a wide group of stakeholders.

She is currently responsible for Investigator-led Grants, Research Careers and Enablers of research funding, ensuring implementation of the strategy within a changing environment through funding and other activities. Ensuring value along the research pathway is core to her role.

Anne is particularly interested in creating synergies between initiatives and in further developing the HRB’s approach to Public and Patient Involvement (PPI).

Dr Maura Hiney

Head of Targeted Programmes, International Cooperation and Evaluation, Health Research Board

Dr Maura Hiney is currently leading the International Cooperation, Evaluation and Targeted Programmes Unit at the Health Research Board. This unit, established in January 2021 will have responsibility for hosting key national Horizon Europe and EU4Health Programme support roles, coordinating HRB policy and the evaluation of the HRB’s funding portfolio based on best and next practice, and supporting existing and developing new targeted research programmes that are linked to national health policy and service delivery research evidence needs.

Maura has authored several HRB Evaluation Reports of schemes, research fields and research outputs and impacts to inform HRB research investment. Maura has a strong interest in research Integrity (RI) and has been influential in raising awareness of RI issues in Ireland and internationally since 2007. She was deeply involved in establishing a National RI Forum of key stakeholders and developing a national RI framework for broad adoption.

Internationally, Maura is a board member of the European Network of RI Offices (ENRIO) and was a contributor to the European Competitiveness Council Conclusions on RI in 2015 on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency. She is Chair of the All European Academies (ALLEA) Permanent Working Group on Science and Ethics with whom she chaired the drafting group of a revision of the European Code of Conduct on RI, which was launched by Commissioner Moedas in March 2017. She sits on the Policy Advisory Boards of the EU-funded ENTiRE and VIRT2UE projects, which conduct research on RI climate and training, and is a partner in the SOPs4RI project, which is developing a suite of SOPs for managing good research practices and plans.

Dr Teresa Maguire

Director of Research Strategy and Funding, Health Research Board

Dr Teresa Maguire is the Head of Research Strategy and Funding at the Health Research Board. Prior to taking up this role, Teresa spent almost five years on secondment in the Department of Health, where she developed and managed a new Research Services & Policy Unit. During this time, she secured Government approval for a dedicated Bill to reform the research ethics system and worked closely with the HSE to oversee the recruitment of a Director of R&D and the publication of the HSE’s first Research & Evidence Strategy. Teresa also led the case for research, evidence and data to be explicitly recognised as enablers in the Sláintecare Implementation Strategy.

Teresa has over 25 years’ experience working in health-research related roles. She qualified with a BSc in Pharmacology from University College Dublin and she holds a PhD from the University of Dundee. Having worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Surgery in St Vincent’s University Hospital she became Director of Scientific Affairs with a multinational biopharmaceutical company. Teresa joined the management team of the HRB in 2002 and over the course of 14 years held a variety of roles, most recently as Head of Population Health and Health Services Research.

Over the last two decades, Teresa has participated on numerous committees and groups to influence and support national health research and innovation policy. She managed a range of all-island research initiatives such as the Cancer Consortium and Cochrane Ireland and she has significant experience from participation in successive EU Framework Programmes.

Teresa also holds a Master of Business from the Irish Management Institute and University College Cork.

Professor Martin McKee

Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Professor Martin McKee qualified in medicine in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with subsequent training in internal medicine and public health. He is Professor of European Public Health and Medical Director at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Research Director at the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, and Past President of the European Public Health Association.

He has published over 1,200 academic papers and 46 books and his contributions to European health policy have been recognised by, among others, election to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, Academia Europeae, and the US National Academy of Medicine. He is a member of the UK’s Independent SAGE and has received several awards for advocacy and speaking truth to power. He tweets as @martinmckee.

Dr Sara Burke

Research Assistant Professor of Health Policy, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin

Dr Sara Burke is a Research Assistant Professor in the Centre for Health Policy and Management, School of Medicine in Trinity College Dublin. Her research interests are health policy, health systems, inequalities in health and access to healthcare as well as the politics of health reform. She is currently PI on a HRB-funded project, researching the potential of the Irish COVID-19 health systems responses to inform the effective implementation of Sláintecare.

Sara leads the Irish team reporting to the WHO/European Commission/European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies COVID-19 Health System Response Monitor https://www.covid19healthsystem.org/countries/ireland/countrypage.aspx. She is the module lead on Health Systems and Policy on the Trinity MSc in Health Services Management and the SPHeRE PhD programme https://www.tcd.ie/medicine/staff/BURKES17.

Professor Fionnuala Breathnach

Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

Professor Fionnuala Breathnach is Associate Professor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Sub-specialist in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Rotunda Hospital Dublin. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin in 1997, she completed Higher Specialist Training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Dublin and a Fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, New York.

She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and also holds a Medical Doctorate, a Diploma in Child Health from RCSI/ RCPI, a Diploma in Genito-Urinary Medicine and a Masters in Healthcare Ethics and Law. She has published widely on Diabetes in Pregnancy, Multiple Gestation, Obstetric Ultrasound and High Risk Pregnancy.

She is currently leading the HRB-funded Mother and Baby Clinical Trials Network, a national collaboration between seven Perinatology centres in Ireland and is Principal Investigator for the IRELAnD Study: a randomized control trial of aspirin use in pregnancies complicated by diabetes. A mother of four children, she has completed the ‘practical course’ in obstetrics.