April 2016 Whitaker Institute To Host Annual Research Day at NUI Galway

The Whitaker Institute for Innovation and Societal Change in NUI Galway will hold its Annual Research Day on Wednesday, 13 April. The Institute is named after Dr T.K. Whitaker who is widely recognised for setting Ireland’s economy on a path of internationalisation and modernisation through his 1958 study, Economic Development. Throughout his illustrious career, Dr Whitaker demonstrated and implemented innovative ideas and approaches to challenges and issues facing our economy and society. The event is open to the public, researchers and policy makers.

The Whitaker Institute has adopted a similarly innovative, multidisciplinary and transformative approach in its research on challenges facing business and society in Ireland and internationally. As such, the Whitaker Institute has positioned itself to play a leading research-led role in the debate on the future of economic development across its three research themes of Sustainable and Inclusive Societies, Public-Sector Innovation and Reform and Business, Innovation & Economic Development.

Focusing on these main themes, the Whitaker Institute Research Day is an opportunity for researchers and policy makers from across multiple disciplines to meet and discuss how the multi-perspective research of the Institute, on a range of social and economic issues, can promote a more sustainable and inclusive society.

Professor John McHale, Director of the Whitaker Institute at NUI Galway, said: “The Whitaker Institute Research day will discuss topics such as climate change, environmental sustainability, gender equality, information management in the public sector and healthy societies. While the Irish economy and the policy issues were very different on the eve of T.K. Whitaker producing his famous 1958 study compared to the issues we face now, there are still potential resonances from that time for research and policy making in Ireland today. The research day is about discussing those ideas that can have real policy impact and ultimately help deliver a more sustainable and inclusive society.”

The research day will involve a series of talks at NUI Galway. The day is divided up into five main sessions. The first morning session sees each cluster of the Whitaker Institute give a short presentation on their research and how it advances the three key research themes of the Institute. The other sessions throughout the day will see Whitaker researchers presenting some of the key ongoing projects of the Institute in more detail.

There will also be a number of external speakers on the day. A plenary talk will be delivered by Professor John Fitzgerald, Chair of the Advisory Council on Climate Change who will speak on moving to a low carbon Irish economy. And Orlaigh Quinn, Head of the Expenditure Policy and Reporting & Government Reform Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, who will take part in a panel discussion on information management in the public sector.

The event will take place in the Hardiman Research Building at NUI Galway on Wednesday, 13 April.

To register attendance online, and download the full agenda for the day, visit http://whitakerinstitute.ie/event/whitaker-research-day/. Attendance is free but registration is required.

ENDS