Meet the Vice Presidents for Research

Dr Rick Officer, Vice President for Research and Innovation, GMIT

Our summer meetings with the international panel drove home the importance of research as the defining transformative feature of the new TU. The panel recognised research as being crucial to effective education in the TU, to our relationships with enterprise, to our regional impact, and to our international reputation. This is extremely gratifying for the CUA research community. Together we’ve worked hard to improve our research performance, and its integration across all aspects of our mission. It is really exciting to now be poised ready to deliver on that ambition as a new TU.

Rick represents GMIT on the CUA’s Research and Innovation Working Group. As Vice President for Research and Innovation Rick has responsibility for GMIT’s contract and postgraduate research provision, and its enterprise innovation hubs.He has extensive experience of competitively funded national and international research projects and programmes. Rick co-ordinated the development of CUA guidance on novel Master’s programmes designed in accordance with the TU designation criteria. He promulgated these designs through the CUA. Other CUA initiatives he has led include the: • CUA Research Collaboration Fund; • Joint supervision funding model; • Inter-institutional student transfer; • Joint conferences; • Postgraduate Researcher Training Programmes.

Meet the Vice Presidents for Research

Dr Chris O Malley, Vice President, Research, Innovation and Engagement, IT Sligo

On the research and innovation side, the benefits of the three institutes acting as one have been clear from the start. Together we have a wider range of expertise to bring to any project, and as a result we can be more ambitious and successful in what we go after, not least the European Digital Hubs programme. Our centres working with industry can call on a wider portfolio of talent than previously and as a result we all have more to offer.

Chris represents IT Sligo on the CUA’s Research and Innovation Working Group. He has worked with colleagues to organise, participate in, and promote a range of joint initiatives and plans including organisation of joint research seminars and conferences, joint supervision bursaries, and calls for PRTP proposals. He has been the Vice President for Research, Innovation and Engagement in IT Sligo since 2018 and has led on participation in the new European RISEN Alliance bid and collaborated on several projects. Other initiatives he has taken the lead on include: • A successful funding bid to establish a new model of European-wide SME development; • Development of north-west partnership for the European Digital Innovation Hub, shortlisted by Irish Government, and led by the CUA.

Meet the Vice Presidents for Research

Mr John Andy Bonar, Vice President for Research, Equality and External Affairs

The creation of the new technological university (TU) marks an extremely important milestone in the development of the west and north-west region. The collective strengths of the constituent institutions across the mission critical domain of Research and Innovation will make a strategically significant contribution to transforming the economic, technological, social and cultural development of the region.

John Andy Bonar represents LYIT on the CUA’s Reseach and Innovation Working Group. In LYIT he holds institute-wide responsibility for Research, Enterprise and Innovation, Internationalisation, LifeLong Learning and External Engagement. John Andy was part of a small team at LYIT that recently won significant competitively bid funding for multimillion euro Interreg VA Research and Innovation Projects with the University of Ulster (UU). He also leads CoLab, LYIT’s Innovation Centre, which is home to over 60 high potential tech startups employing over 200 graduate level knowledge workers. CoLab is the north-west Partner of Catalyst’s Innovation Centre at Ft George in Derry. John Andy assisted Dr Paddy Hannigan in winning Enterprise Ireland funded Regional Technology Cluster support for the Killybegs Marine Cluster. He also helped secure over €5m competitively bid funding to establish an Ocean Innovation Centre on the LYIT campus in Killybegs to drive collaboration with key industry stakeholders and exploit the enormous potential of the Blue Economy.