Agenda

Opening & Welcome by Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General, Science Foundation Ireland

Keynote Address: Dr Kongjian Yu – ‘Healing the world’s cities through nature based solutions’

In 2016, Turenscape Academy was founded by Dr Kongjian Yu, founding dean of the Peking University College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Professor and Honorary Foreign Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and PhD from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Dr Yu’s pioneering research on Ecological Security Patterns and Sponge Cities has been adopted by the Chinese government as the guiding theory for national land use planning, eco-city campaigns, and urban ecological restoration. Turenscape has planned and designed over 300 ecological cities and 1000 landscape projects in China and internationally. This will be followed by a Q&A session with Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General of SFI.

Dr Lynette Keeney, Tyndall National Institute, University College Cork, gives a video overview of her research carried out under the SFI-Royal Society University Fellowship Programme, with an introduction by Dr Ekaterina Nesterenko, Scientific Programme Manager, Science Foundation Ireland.

Keynote & Panel Discussion: EU Missions to Grand Challenges: Creating our Future and opportunities for Irish-based researchers

A keynote address by Matthew Baldwin, Manager of the European Commission’s Mission for 100 Climate Neutral Cities followed by a panel discussion providing an overview of the EU Missions and grand challenges funding opportunities. It will provide researchers with insights to catalyse their creative thinking and encourage submissions, driving world-leading inclusive research and innovation that everyone can benefit from.

Panel chair: Dr Lisa Higgins, Head of Challenge Research, SFI.  Co-Chair: Dr Stephen O’Driscoll, Challenge Research Manager, SFI.

• Dr Peter Heffernan, Member of the EU Mission Board for ‘Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters’ and former CEO of the Marine Institute Ireland.
• Dr Linda Doyle, Provost of Trinity College Dublin.

WORKSHOPS
Workshop 3: Peer Review Process and the Gold Standard Practices

Led by the SFI Individual-led Research Team.

This workshop will bring together experts in the field of research assessment to discuss the latest developments in international peer review and to open a discussion on ways in which these new processes have been or could be implemented, including examples from SFI, such as the use of the narrative CV, using strategic tiebreakers in the event of a tie and the potential use of a lottery – type process.

Workshop 4: “Seeding, Scaling and Diversifying Partnerships”

Led by the SFI Enterprise Partnership Team.

This workshop will focus on business development and partnership opportunities available to researchers in Ireland, as well as showcasing co-funded programmes.

Keynote & Panel Discussion:  Antibiotic resistance – a post-pandemic crisis

Prof Matthew Avison, Professor of Molecular Bacteriology, School of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Infection and Immunity at University of Bristol will deliver a keynote on the global problem of the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, and an interdisciplinary approach to solving it.

Panel Chair: Ruth Kelly, Strategy & Transformation Lead, SFI  Co-Chair: Dr Finnian Hanrahan, Scientific Programme Manager, SFI

• Prof Paul Ross, Centre Director of APC Microbiome Ireland SFI Research Centre
• Dr Karen Burns, Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, Beaumont Hospital and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, RCSI

CÚRAM SFI Research Centre + Science on Screen Film Festival Screening of “Science in Exile” | TWAS with an introduction from Prof Mark Ferguson, Director General, SFI

This short documentary follows the stories of four scientists in developing countries, committed to a life of research. Focused on fields ranging from agriculture to climate change and medical care to economics, they are pursuing discoveries and innovations that will improve life for the people in their countries, and their regions. It explores how recent violence in Syria, Yemen and Iraq has threatened the lives of these researchers, forcing them to suspend their work and flee their homelands. The same decision has confronted uncounted thousands of their colleagues globally – scientists, engineers, doctors and medical researchers, advanced science students.

Panel chair: Dr Gemma Irvine, Vice-President for Equality and Diversity at Maynooth University, will chair a discussion on ‘Excellence in Exile’.   She will be joined by Dr Joel Hanisek, Policy & Programme Manager at the Scholars at Risk programme and fellow guests Pamela Uba, Trinity College Dublin and Mansoor Al-Waeel, CÚRAM.

To view the trailer – please click here