The Faculty of Law at NUI Galway has announced the appointment of Mrs Justice Catherine McGuinness to the position of Adjunct Professor of Law. Mrs. Justice McGuinness is a judge of the Irish Supreme Court and President of the Law Reform Commission. A former senator representing the University of Dublin, Trinity College panel in Seanad Éireann, Mrs McGuinness has also acted as the Chairperson of the Forum for Peace & Reconciliation. Welcoming the appointment, Marie McGonagle, Head of the Law Department and Director of the LL.M in Public Law said: "Given her dynamic track record as both a judge and legislator, it is especially appropriate that Mrs. Justice McGuinness will be associated with our new LL.M programme in Public Law. The students on that programme – which is the first of its kind in Ireland – will have the benefit of her extensive knowledge and experience". The Dean of Law, Donncha O'Connell, said the Faculty was honoured that a person of Mrs. Justice McGuinness's calibre was willing to accept the University's offer of an Adjunct Chair for a three-year period. He added that he looked forward to a fruitful period of engagement between the academic staff and student community in NUI Galway and an eminent member of the Irish judiciary. "This will cement the already healthy relationship between the Faculty and judiciary developed in recent years through the Faculty's involvement in editing and producing the Judicial Studies Institute Journal" he said.

The Irish Universities Association today announced the successful funding of research in Irish Universities and Industry to the tune of €10million in the current EU Marie Curie funding round. This brings the total amount of funding, secured by Ireland from the European Commission's highly competitive Marie Curie Programme, to €42 million. The funding will expand Ireland's R&D capability by attracting a total of 220 top class researchers from around the world. The current round represents 16 funded projects across eight Irish organisations: Cellix Ltd., Sigmoid Ltd., Duolog Ltd., Celtic Catalysts Ltd., University College Cork, University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway. The projects span a large variety of disciplines, from life sciences to nanotechnology and also include the humanities. The significance of this success for Irish Research cannot be understated, as the contract values represent almost one quarter of the total available fund for all Europe under this scheme. The Irish Universities Association (IUA) provides a national support service for industry and academia in preparing and submitting proposals to this programme. Harnessing academic know-how in accessing European funds is helping Irish Industry in building R&D capability. Dr. Conor O'Carroll, head of the Research Office at the IUA said: " This is an example of where universities and companies working together can demonstrate the high quality of R&D in Ireland by being more successful than any other European country in securing funding from this highly sought after funding." The stated Government policy is to increase research in Irish industry. In this context, the Irish Universities Association undertook to actively promote the Marie Curie Programme to companies. As a direct result, 20% of the total €42million has been won by Industry here. This proves that despite Government concerns about the decreasing involvement of Irish Industry in FP6, the Marie Curie Programme is bucking this trend. The Marie Curie Programme covers the salary costs of researchers hired for the project and contributes to research, management costs and overheads. Contract values vary between €150,000 for a single researcher up to €1.5million for a research team. The importance of this funding for research is illustrated by an awardee, Dr. Michael Madden of the Laboratory for Biomedical Data Mining in NUI Galway, "It will contribute to NUI Galway's capacity to perform research, and help to improve the competitiveness within the knowledge economy of the Objective 1 Region in which Galway is located. It will also enhance our interactions with other European research institutes, and help promote research as a profession. We owe a debt of gratitude to the IUA in their assistance on how to structure a proposal and their advice most certainly contributed to its success". Significant opportunities still remain for research organisations in the Marie Curie Programme with more than €450million available in early 2006. The Irish Universities Association will strongly support potential applicants in industry, universities and institutes of technology to maximise further success. Ends

The presenter of RTE's Mooney Goes Wild nature programme, Eanna Ní Lamhna, is to deliver a public lecture on sustainable development at the Environmental Change Institute at NUI Galway on Monday 21st November at 8.00pm. The well-known environmentalist is the current president of An Taisce and will deliver her talk on 'A Future for Our Past' at the O'Tuathail Theatre in the Arts Millennium Building. The event is free and members of the public are welcome to attend. An experienced radio and television broadcaster and a fluent Irish speaker, Eanna is in Galway for this year's Science and Technology Festival which runs from the 21st to the 25th November. Her talk will focus on how we can reconcile the growing prosperity in Ireland and the development this brings, with conserving our environmental heritage and countryside. She has been invited by the Director of the Environmental Change Institute, Professor Emer Colleran, to deliver what is the third in a series of topical lectures. "Eanna is a very charismatic speaker and is well-known for her commitment to sustainable development. The Environmental Change Institute is delighted to host her talk", says Prof. Colleran. The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at the National University of Ireland, Galway was founded in September 2000 to develop a fundamental understanding of the processes involved in and the key indicators of, environmental change. It brings together the knowledge, skills and experience of researchers from a wide variety of relevant disciplines. The result is a focused, interdisciplinary and cross-faculty centre at NUI, Galway, dedicated to environmental science and environmental change research.

Photographs from the Congested District Board Collection and the Connemara Album An unusual photographic exhibition depicting life in the west of Ireland in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, will provide Galway audiences with a rare glimpse of a by-gone era. The exhibition, entitled Regeneration: the West of Ireland, 1890-1914, will take place in the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway from Tuesday 8 November to Friday 16 December 2005 and is a joint event with the National Photographic Archive. The exhibition draws upon the National Photographic Archive's Congested Districts Board Collection and Connemara Album, which dates from 1904-1916. Both sets of photographs were created to record the difficulties facing economic development in Mayo, Galway and Donegal between 1906 and 1914 and in Connemara in 1892. They provide a fascinating view of the west of Ireland one hundred and more, years ago. These images are supplemented by photographs from the Balfour Album of 1892, which is part of the James Hardiman Library's Special Collections. The Congested Districts Board was established in 1891 with the primary aim of alleviating poverty in the most disadvantaged places along the western seaboard. Its work continued until 1923 when the Land Commission took over some of its functions. The collection of photographs comprises 105 images, 40 of which can be attributed to the well-known Belfast photographer, Robert J. Welch, documenting congested districts along the west coast. The Balfour Album depicts scenes from Galway and Connemara from the early 1890s. Created by Robert J. Welch, it was a gift to the former Chief Secretary of Ireland, Arthur J. Balfour in recognition of his support for the building of the Galway-Clifden Railway. Exhibition: Regeneration: the West of Ireland, 1890-1914 Location: Foyer and ground floor of the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway Duration: Tuesday 8 November - Friday 16 December 2005 Opening Hours: Monday - Friday 8.30am-10pm Saturday 8.30am-5.30pm Sunday 10.00am - 5.30pm Ends

Details have been announced of NUI Galway's seventh annual Gala Banquet, which will take place at the Radisson SAS Hotel on Saturday 4th March 2006. The 2006 Gala Banquet will build on the University's mission in international education which has brought three postgraduate students from developing countries to NUI Galway as the inaugural recipients of its International Scholarship Programme. The NUI programme is a philanthropic initiative spearheaded by Galway University Foundation, which has been working with a range of donors to secure substantial scholarship funds for postgraduate students from developing countries to study in NUI Galway. Income from the Gala Banquet itself will also contribute to this initiative. The students; a lawyer from South Africa, and a doctor and an engineer from Sri Lanka, will be special guests at the Gala which will focus on NUI Galway's role as an international force for change in improving educational opportunities for students from developing countries. One of the highlights of the evening, which has established itself as a premier national event and one of the key social occasions in the West of Ireland, is the presentation of seven annual Alumni Awards. These awards celebrate the life-long value of an NUI Galway education and recognise individual excellence and achievements among the University's more than 50,000 graduates worldwide. The Alumni Awards are; Medtronic Vascular Award for Health Care and Medical Science; Seavite Award for Natural Science; Bank of Ireland Award for Business and Commerce; AIB Award for Literature, Communications and the Arts; TBD Award for Engineering, IT and Mathematics; Duais Hewlett-Packard don Ghaeilge and the NUI Galway Award for Law, Public Service and Government. Tickets for the banquet cost €150 each and €1,500 for a table of 10. For further information, please telephone 091 495266 or Email: gala@nuigalway.ie