Community Engaged Scholars Programme

Community Engaged Scholars Programme 2024 Partnerships Announcement

14th August 2024

PPI Ignite Network @ University of Galway are delighted to announce the three Community-Academic Partnerships who have been chosen to participate in the Community Engaged Scholars Programme 2024. The Community Engaged Scholars Programme (CES-P) offers a bespoke training programme and seed funding to community-academic partnerships. The aim of this programme is to foster meaningful and equitable partnerships between researchers at University of Galway and community members, from members of the general public, to patients and patient organisations, community groups, and other interested parties (e.g health care professionals). 

Through a highly competitive call process, this year's CES-P cohort were chosen due to the novelty of their projects and partnerships, clear evidence of meaningful involvement of community partners in the research process, and the long-term potential benefits of these partnerships for society and everyone involved. These highly innovative and interdisciplinary projects span a wide variety of research topics, from infant mental health research, to dementia research, guided by the values and principles of public and patient involvement in research (PPI). A huge congratulations to the awardees. 

Community Engaged Scholars Programme 2024 Partnerships:

Exploring perspectives on connection to the community and wellbeing among members of the Sanctuary Runners community solidarity initiative: a focus group study

Community-Academic Partnership between Jennifer O’Brien, Ellen O’Connor, and Éle Quinn of Sanctuary Runners and Dr David Healy (School of Psychology) of University of Galway

Building Together: A University-Community Initiative to Co-Design a Memory Café

Community-Academic Partnership between Joanne Hourigan and Maureen Mannion (The Alzheimer Society of Ireland), Mary Murphy (Western Alzheimer), Dr. Maria Costello (ICPOP), Mary Mulry and Laura Loftus (School of Health Sciences) of University of Galway

Exploring First Time Parent Involvement in Community Based Infant Mental Health Research

 Community-Academic Partnership between Morgan Mee (Galway CYPSC), Stacey Forde (Galway Childcare Committee), Evelyn Fanning (HSE) and Dr Caroline Heary and Catherine Maguire (School of Psychology) of University of Galway

About the Community Engaged Scholars Programme (CES-P)

The purpose of the Community Engaged Scholars Programme is to increase the capacity of community-academic partnership to conduct research, underpinned by principles of PPI, to improve the health of our communities. 

The main aims of the CES programme are as follows: 

• To advance a PPO co-learning curriculum for community and academic partners. 
• To promote and foster equitable partnerships between public and patients/patient organisations/community groups, researchers and other stakeholders (e.g. health care professionals),  where partners work together to make joint decisions across the full research cycle i.e. from collaborative identification of health research questions and priorities to dissemination of research results. 
• To stimulate subsequent partnership applications for further research funding.

The CES programme provides formal training and pilot study seed funds for partnerships comprised of a Community Partner and an Academic Partner interested in embedding PPI in their collaborative research. 

Participants who successfully complete the CES Programme have the skills to: 

• Understand the core concepts of and approaches to PPI
• Apply PPI principles in the conduct of research
• Incorporate PPI approaches in research grant proposals
• Conduct a pilot research study to address a shared community health priority
• Build foundations for sustaining the community-academic partnerships and in seeking funding for PPI-centred research

Community Engaged Scholars Programme 2019/2020

The CES-P 2024 Call follows the completion of a pilot CES-P programme in 2020. The three funded partnerships were: 

• Irish ME/CFS Association, represented by Orla Ní Chomhraí and Tom Kindlon, partnering with Dr John Cullinan, a health economist. 
• Irish Heart Foundation, represented by Martina Greene and the Ballinasloe Stroke Support group, partnering with Dr Ruth McMenamin, a lecturer in speech and language therapy. 
• Croí, represented by Irene Gibson and Denise Dunne, partnering with a group of health psychologists, led by Dr Oonagh Meade. 

For more information about the CES-P 2019/2020 click here.