Speakers’ Profiles
Plenary Session
Dr Catherine Halbert (Halbert Research)
Catherine Halbert (BSc, MSc, PhD) is the Director of Halbert Research, specialising in research
management. She has more than 20 years’ experience developing, managing, and evaluating
scientific projects in industry and academia. She has a European client base.
Catherine has worked as a research scientist in both plant science (Trinity College Dublin) and
food science and technology (University College Cork). Her technical experience is quite broad
and is best described as within the ‘Life Sciences’. She is a leading partner in two FP7 projects:
STARTEC - Safety and Quality of RTE Foods; and TRADEIT – Support for the Traditional Food
Sector.
She is an experienced EU evaluator and project reviewer (FP5, FP6, and FP7). She was the
independent reviewer for the largest EC-funded Integrated Project (SeafoodPlus) over a
period of 5 years, and has reviewed many projects in the SME and KBBE funding programmes.
In 2013, Catherine was appointed by the EC to the Horizon 2020 Advisory Group for Societal
Challenge 2 ‘Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and
inland water research and the bioeconomy’ and to the Advisory Group for LEIT (Leadership in
Enabling and Industrial Technologies) in Biotechnology.
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Professor Carme Borrell (ASPB Barcelona)
(ASPB-Public Health Provider Agency of
Barcelona) is a member of the Executive
Board of the International Network of
Social Inequalities and Health. She is also
the
project
coordinator
of
the
international FP 7 consortia project:
‘SOPHIE—Evaluating the Impact of
Structural Policies on Health Inequalities
and their Social Determinants, and
Fostering Change.’
Sadhbh McCarthy (CIES)
Sadhbh McCarthy, as co-founder &
director of the Centre for Irish and
European Security (CIES), has built
extensive experience, reputation and
network capacities in the European
security industry. Ms. McCarthy’s
background in IT saw her work at IBM and
Diageo for ten years, before going on to set
up the European Biometrics Forum in
2004, and more recently the CIES in 2009.
She has worked in roles ranging from Committee Chair for EU Commission Policy Groups to
leading and participating in projects and groups within the European Security Research
Programme (ESRP). Ms. McCarthy has been instrumental in advancing the European debate
on societal impact and privacy and fundamental rights of European security policy; Sadhbh’s
most notable achievement in this context was her involvement in spearheading the creation
of the Societal Impact Expert Working Group and the guidelines that followed.
Sadhbh balances the CIES FP7 security research commitments, which currently stands at six
projects, with advisory board roles in seven European projects, NGOs & private companies.
Sadhbh is also a regular Irish radio and television contributor on European policy and
development issues, and a strong advocate of efforts to improve the gender balance in
science and technology fields.
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SESSION A
Professor Margaret Barry (NUI Galway)
Margaret M. Barry, Ph.D. is Professor of
Health Promotion and Public Health and
Head of the World Health Organization
Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion
Research at the National University of
Ireland Galway.
Professor Barry has published widely in health promotion and works closely with
policymakers and practitioners on the development, implementation and evaluation of
health promotion interventions and policies at national and international level. Elected as
Global Vice President for Capacity Building, Education and Training by the International Union
for Health Promotion and Education from 2007-2010, Professor Barry has extensive
experience of coordinating European and international collaborative projects. She has served
as project leader on major European initiatives, including a European Union funded initiative
on core competencies for Health Promotion in the European region and a programme of
health communication research for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and
Control.
Professor Barry has served as board member of a number of international and European
steering groups, research councils and scientific committees and has acted as expert adviser
on mental health promotion policy and research development in a number of countries
around the world. She was appointed in 2013 to the European Commission Expert Panel on
Effective Ways of Investing in Health (2013-2016).
Having completed her primary degree and doctoral studies in Psychology at Trinity College,
Dublin, she has held previous posts as Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Birmingham,
UK; Lecturer in Psychology at Trinity College, Dublin, and Deputy Director of the Health
Services Research Unit at University College, North Wales.
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Dr Jan Rigby (NUI Maynooth)
Jan Rigby is a health geographer at the National University of
Ireland Maynooth. She discovered health geography as part of a
career change in 1990, and completed a PhD in the spatial
epidemiology of breast cancer in 1999. In 2001 she moved to New
Zealand,
where
she
established
the
first
joint
academic/government research institute, whose remit was to
provide public health intelligence for the Ministry of Health. In 2004
she moved to the University of Sheffield as part of the Social and
Spatial Inequalities research group, and then to NUI Maynooth in
2009 to manage the SFI- funded research cluster in Advanced
Geotechnologies (StratAG) and to establish the Centre for Health Geoinformatics
(www.chg.ie).
The focus of Jan’s research is to use geographical approaches to provide evidence for policymakers. Current research projects include an HRB- funded award measuring health
inequalities in Ireland, a 3U-Partnership award in Diabetes exploring spatial epidemiology and
community implementation, and hospital service planning with the Centre for Cross-Border
studies. She also works with an international consortium modelling the drivers of poverty at
detailed geographical scales. She has a commitment to capacity building in the use of
geographical information systems (GIS) for health research in poor countries, training
researchers from those countries alongside staff from NGOs in Ireland.
Dr Gerardine Doyle (UCD)
spanning from accounting, medicine,
taxation to sociology. She is currently the
principal investigator for the FP 7 project
‘Enhancing the (cost-) effectiveness of
diabetes self-management education: A
comparative assessment of different
educational approaches and conditions for
successful implementation.’ She was the
principal investigator for Ireland in the
European Health Literacy Survey, which
has won three societal impact awards.
Gerardine is also an expert evaluator for
Health under FP 7.
Gerardine Doyle, Head of Accountancy
subject area at UCD’s School of Business,
has a wide-range of research interests
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SESSION B
Dr Heather Griffioen-Young (TNO Netherlands)
Dr Heather Griffioen-Young is a senior project manager at TNO in Soesterberg. Heather
received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY in
1990. She subsequently pursued (and received) a Master’s degree in social and organisational
psychology from the University of Leiden, followed by a PhD in social cognition from the
University of Nijmegen, both in The Netherlands. In 1997 she worked for The Hague Police
Department in the Department of Analysis and Research, where her research focused on
juvenile crime. In 1998 Heather started working at TNO. There her research had a broad focus:
from how people experience underground spaces to team building in military teams, from
how people choose parking locations to crowd and riot control. In most of her research, safety
and security were common themes, as was, increasingly, a focus on influencing attitudes and
behaviour. Since 2006, Heather primarily manages and coordinates complex, often
international, projects. Under the Security Theme of FP7, Heather has coordinated CPSI (on
perceptions of security), SAFIRE (on violent radicalisation), BESECURE (on urban security) and
CASSANDRA (on increased transparency in container shipping), and the negotiation of
TACTICS (on critical response to security incidents) and INTACT (on extreme weather and
critical infrastructure).
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Dr Michael Cooke (TCD)
Dr Michael Cooke is a research fellow in the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. He
is a graduate of UCC where he completed his PhD in Applied Psychology. He currently works
with the Centre for Innovative Human Systems and is the principal investigator on three EU
FP-7 projects: HOMER, iSAR+ and SOTERIA.
His research interests include work in the areas of human factors, human-computer
interaction and organisational psychology. He is currently working within the domains of
security and crisis management but also has extensive experience working within the
aviation, energy and manufacturing domains.
Michael sees his role within such collaborative research projects involving complex
sociotechnical systems as that of understanding the critical role of the human in the system
and working closely with other design partners to ensure such systems are designed with
knowledge of human needs, capabilities and limitations at the centre. The desired outcome
of this process is to achieve safer, more effective and more efficient operational systems and
the reduction of risk during system development.
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Dr Maura Conway (DCU)
Dr Maura Conway’s principal research interests are in the area of terrorism and the Internet,
including academic and media discourses on cyberterrorism, the functioning and
effectiveness of violent political extremist online content, and violent online radicalisation.
She has presented upon these issues before the United Nations in New York, the Commission
of the European Union in Brussels, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London, and
elsewhere.
Her articles have appeared in, amongst others, Current History, First Monday, Media, War &
Conflict, and Parliamentary Affairs. Maura is Senior Lecturer in International Security in the
School of Law and Government at Dublin City University (DCU) in Dublin, Ireland and Principal
Investigator on VOX-Pol, a major EU-funded project on violent online political extremism.
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SESSION C
Professor Patrick Wall (UCD)
Patrick Wall (UCD Institute of Food and Health) specializes in food-borne diseases, lifestyle
related diseases and health damaging consumer behaviour. He is the project coordinator of
the international interdisciplinary FP7 project FoodRisC (Food Risk Communication –
perceptions and communication of food risk/benefits across Europe).
Dr Stephen Hynes (NUI Galway)
Stephen Hynes is a lecturer in the Disciple of Economics in the National University of Ireland,
Galway. He also has responsibility for the program of research within the Socio-Economic
Marine Research Unit (SEMRU). He has a background in applied marine and
environmental/natural resource economic research. Stephen received his PhD in
Environmental Economics from Stirling University, Scotland. He has previously worked as an
environmental economist in the Rural Economy Research Centre, Teagasc. He is currently a
principle investigator on the SocioEc EU FP7 project (http://www.socioec.eu/) and the Marnet
EU INTEREG IV Atlantic Area project (http://marnetproject.eu/).
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David Murphy (AquaTT)
David has been the General Manager of AquaTT for the past 14 years. AquaTT is a leader in
scientific knowledge management. They are specialists in ensuring that the new knowledge
generated by European-funded scientific projects is effectively transferred to create
maximum positive impact. AquaTT has built a multidisciplinary team from across Europe with
a range of professional backgrounds in scientific research, education, business, industry,
communication and graphic design.
AquaTT partners with research consortia to design projects that will have positive societal
impact. They collaborate with more than 250 institutions in more than 40 countries. They use
their team’s collective expertise to create knowledge transfer and dissemination plans
specifically tailored for each new project. In the last six years they have been partners in 27
EC-funded projects across the FP7, Interreg and Lifelong Learning Programmes. Building upon
their experiences, AquaTT has recently developed mentorship and training services to teach
others key skills and competences required for successful funding procurement.
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