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A defining characteristic of UNIC is its strong and vital partnership with the post-industrial cities across the consortium, as university partners work hand-in-hand with city institutions.
Through CityLabs and Engaged Research, UNIC contributes to the urban resilience and renaissance of post-industrial cities.
Engaged Research is an overarching or umbrella term describing a wide range of research approaches and methodologies, each having a core intent of collaborative engagement ‘with’ and ‘within’ society.
Through UNIC, UCC makes an explicit commitment to engaged research in partnership with city stakeholders with a clear ambition to achieve societal impact. The UNIC declaration for Engaged Research was signed by university and municipal leaders at the UNIC CityLab Festival in Oulu, Finland, on 15 June 2022.
Running from 2021 to 2024, UNIC4ER (UNIC for Engaged Research) focused on fostering socially inclusive, impactful research across Europe. By emphasizing Engaged Research, UNIC4ER brought researchers together with local communities, governments, and organizations. UNIC4ER received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101035801.
52 Engaged Research initiatives were supported across the UNIC consortium by UNIC4ER seed funding. Nine of these were led from University College Cork; take a look at those below.
Community Sport and Physical Activity for Inclusion of Young People with Disabilities - A multi-stakeholder perspective
Lead researcher: Dr João Costa, Lecturer in Education (Sport Pedagogy)
Co-researchers: Cliona Horan (Cork Sports Partnership*, Paralympics Ireland), Dr Conor Philpott (UCC), Kate Feeney (MTU Kerry Campus), Dr Diarmuid Lester (UCC), Dr Wesley O’Brien (UCC), Sineád Kelly (Cork Sports Partnership*). *Change of institutional affiliation and institutional representation during the project.
The aim of PA4Inclusion was to map the offering of community sports offerings and services for children and youth with disabilities (up to 18 years old) in Cork City and Bilbao City, from a macro-level policy analysis to a micro-level multi-stakeholder SWOT analysis. There are three specific objectives: participation analysis (carried out through a Cork-wide survey), availability policy and services analysis (documentary analysis) and multi-stakeholder SWOT analysis done through a dissemination workshop.
Outcomes include the building of capacity between UCC and the Cork Sports Partnership in collaboration. Furthermore, the development of a productive and sustainable network between UCC and key entities of Cork City with a shared focus and objective. And finally, the building of an international consortium between University College Cork and University of Deusto, aiming at developing a follow-up project for European funding.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Health and Wellbeing’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city valuing health and wellbeing’
Sustainable Development Goal: 3 ‘Good Health and Well-Being'
Migrant Education: Challenges and Exclusion
Lead researcher: Dr Claire Dorrity, School of Applied Social Studies
Partners: University of Liège, Koç University Istanbul, Migrants (including parents, students and Sanctuary Ambassadors), Community organisations, Educators and City Stakeholders, namely: Cork Migrant Centre, Schools of Sanctuary Ireland, PurplUnicorn (Cork), Le Interra (cultural bridging organisation), La Monde des Possibles (Liège), Syrian and international student support networks (Koç).
This project highlights how the successful management of superdiversity and the inclusion of migrants in higher education will depend on the way universities and educational institutions engage with migrant populations, key stakeholders, and community actors.
The research focus covers: exploring barriers and challenges that migrants experience in accessing education; examining inclusive teaching models; fostering an inclusive and diverse environment, which celebrates superdiversity and shifts the narrative on diversity to a broader social perspective; involving migrants from superdiverse backgrounds to co-create best practice models in teaching and learning.
The project is bolstering engagement on an individual, local and university level with the issues. Engagement across universities includes identifying synergies and reflecting on different approaches but also building social capital through collaborative and reflective learning environments, influenced by the community partners.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Superdiversity’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on partnership, inclusion and equality’
Sustainable Development Goal: 10 ‘Reduced Inequalities’
Partners: Travellers of North Cork and the Court Service
The Traveller Court Support Initiative is a novel partnership between Dr Samantha Morgan-Williams, Travellers of North Cork and the Court Service, which is developing a training programme and network of Traveller ‘court-support workers’ to provide community-engaged, and culturally appropriate peer-led District court accompaniment supports for Traveller victims of discrimination.
Informed by findings from the Traveller Equality & Justice Project research, the TCSI project was codesigned and advanced in partnership with TEJP UCC Traveller organisation partners in Cork, adopting a ‘nothing about us without us’ approach empowering and building legal-education and rights-advocacy capacity.
During the four-month pilot project period five Traveller women visited the Washington St Courthouse and the School of Law for sessions. They took an eight-week introduction to the legal system course delivered by Dr Morgan-Williams, before completing visitations and sessions at the Washington St Courthouse, focused on capacity building, legal policy and research awareness and development of understanding of the daily processes of the District Court.
Following on from the project, Dr Morgan Williams and colleague Dr Fiona Donson were awarded a novel grant from the Council of Europe Roma and Travellers Division for September-December 2024 (€20,000) to further develop the TCSI for a national launch in 2025. For more on these activities, see: https://www.ucc.ie/en/tejp/news/.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Justice, Security and Institutions’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on Partnership, Inclusion and Equality’
Sustainable Development Goal: 10 ‘Reduced Inequalities’
Lead researcher: Dr Angela Flynn
Co-researchers: Dr Helen Kelly, Dr Margaret Murphy, Dr Sonja Vucen
The aim of the research is to facilitate sustainable and authentic engaged research in the field of Inclusion Health.
The objectives are to
Establish a collaborative engaged research network with identified marginalised communities living in Cork, Cork Healthy Cities representatives, health academics, and with UNIC partners in Universities of Oulu and in Zagreb.
Ascertain the research needs and priorities of marginalised communities in Cork related to unmet health/social needs.
Identify facilitators and barriers to research engagement as attested by marginalised community representatives.
Establish relationships with European researchers for future research collaborations.
The research activities will include establishing local networks of diverse stakeholders, hosting meetings online, engagement with CityLabs, engagement with UNIC partners, ongoing meetings with local network* (online), planning for cross-pollination from other partner cities, a mini workshop with all involved UNIC members and CityLabs, sharing of research priorities for marginalised communities (in all cities) and exploring potential research avenues to investigate them, and planning for a final community-focused event in Cork city.
This Engaged Research initiative is contributing to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Health and Wellbeing’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city of health and wellbeing’.
Sustainable Development Goal: 3 ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’.
Storytelling as a Community Based Participatory Research Project with Irish Travellers as Non-Traditional Researchers
Lead researcher: Dr Patricia McGrath
Co-researchers: Prof. Cathal O' Connell and Dr Séamus O' Tuama
Partners: Phil Dillon, coordinator of the Cork & Kerry Regional Traveller Accommodation Working Group (CKRTAWG).
The key objective of this pilot project is to engage Travellers as non-traditional researchers to explore Traveller housing needs. The participants will be trained in storytelling as a research method before engaging in the research. Storytelling will offer a rich insight into the culture, heritage and the lived experience of Traveller accommodation.
Inputs will include delivery of the Research Methods module (microcredential), workshops, and meetings. Outputs will include dissemination of the research at a conference, involving all stakeholders. The impact of this research is two-fold: Travellers will gain education to engage as peer researchers, and the research will provide a report for Cork City Council regarding Traveller accommodation.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Urban Resilience and Smart Cities’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on Partnership, Inclusion and Equality’
Sustainable Development Goal: 10 ‘Reduced Inequalities’
Lead researcher: Dr Shirley Martin (School of Applied Social Studies)
Co-researcher: Dr Helen Lynch (Occupational Therapy)
Partners: Cork Child-Friendly City Forum, Cork Healthy Cities, Let’s Grow Together, Katherine Harford, Denise Cahill, STGM (Istanbul), WHO Healthy Cities Zagreb, Department for Social Inclusion, City of Zagreb, a second-level school in Lodz, University of Zagreb, University of Lodz, Koç University and Malmö University
Goals of this project were to: develop best practice strategies for involving children and young people in planning and implementing child-friendly cities; organise online networking forums for adults and children involved in initiatives in Cork, Istanbul, and Zagreb; establish a network on Child Friendly Cities within UNIC.
Activities have included a study to identify how Child-Friendly City initiatives are implemented in UNIC cities, analysis of relevant regulatory and legislative frameworks supporting children’s rights and participation, development of a case study template to collect data from 10 UNIC cities.
Outcomes include a seminar held in May 2024 - Sharing Best Practices on Child Friendly Cities Within the UNIC Network: Insights and Perspectives from Cork, Zagreb and Istanbul – as well as the establishment of the UNIC Child Friendly City Network.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Justice, Security and Institutions’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on Partnership, Inclusion and Equality’
Sustainable Development Goal: 16 ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’
Promoting Resilient Cities through Community Participation & Communication of Climate & Disaster Risks (PROCOMMS)
Lead researcher: Dr Dug Cubie, School of Law
Co-researchers: Dr Marie Aronsson-Storrier (UCC), Dr Lydia Cumiskey (UCC MaREI Centre), Peter Medway (Cork City Council), Helena O’Riordan (Cork City Council), Niamh Guiry (UCC), Catriona Reid (UCC MaREI Centre), Dr Carin Cuadra (Malmö University), Dr Michael Wallengren-Lynch (Malmö University), Emanuel Toft (City of Malmö), Dr Joakim Nordqvist (City of Malmö).
The focus of the project was to identify good practices for communication of climate and disaster risks at the city level, engaging with local community groups.
Two workshops were held, in Cork and Malmö respectively, involving civil society organisations, academia and local authorities.
Future plans include ongoing collaboration. Members of this seed funded project have joined an EU COST Action project, entitled “AlertHub: Warning Communication Knowledge Network”. More information: Research Projects & Activities | University College Cork.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Themes: ‘Sustainability’, and ‘Urban Resilience and Smart Cities’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goals for ‘A city of safe, accessible and resilient neighbourhoods’, and ‘A city leading on sustainability and climate action’
Cork City Climate Action Plan 2024-2029
Sustainable Development Goal: 3 ‘Climate Action’
Lead researcher: Jeanette Fitzsimons
Co-researcher: Dr Karen Ray
This research investigated the potential for providing additional homes close to Cork City Centre that are suitable for families and households of different sizes and needs. The research explored perceptions and experiences of city centre living, in the context of substantial projected population expansion for Cork City, to inform future policy on housing and sustainable neighbourhoods. Through this research, UCC have developed knowledge partnerships with international UNIC colleagues in Malmö University and Deusto University, Bilbao.
An initial stakeholder-mapping workshop was held with project partners from Cork City Council, Approved Housing Bodies and Cork Public Participation Network. This was followed by a co-creation workshop in Cork featuring rich discussion on the topic of living in Cork city centre.
Outcomes include networking between stakeholders; ongoing knowledge sharing with stakeholders, University of Deusto, and Malmö University partners; and an influence on future research on the topic, including doctoral research and a submission for an upcoming UNIC conference.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Urban Resilience and Smart Cities’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city driving economic and enterprise development’.
Sustainable Development Goal: 11 ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’
Engaged Research Capacity Building with Traveller Peer Researchers
Co-designed Community-Based Participatory Research Project gathering primary data on Traveller Accommodation and Microbiome-related health, using novel online survey facilitated by Traveller peer researchers.
Lead researcher: Mary Cronin, School of Public Health
Co-researchers: Liz McGrath (Traveller Visibility Group; TVG), John O’Sullivan (TVG), Patrick McDonagh (TVG), Professor Fergus Shanahan (APC Microbiome UCC), Marc McCarthy (APC Microbiome UCC), Dr Peter Barrett (HSE Public Health & School of Public Health, UCC)
The research partnership built on a pre-existing research relationship between Mary Cronin, TVG and Prof. Fergus Shanahan, APC Microbiome. The partners had co-created a research concept for a follow-up study to the discovery that the Traveller community have a unique microbiome, which may protect against certain health disorders. The seed funding to include Traveller peer-researchers was a welcome enhancement of this Community-Based Participatory Research project.
The research team of three UCC staff and three Travellers co-designed the survey and are testing this novel online data collection method with a community with, traditionally, poor literacy. A team of nine peer researchers from two Traveller community development projects (TVG and Cork Traveller Women’s Network) trained and developed a data collection plan for Cork city.
Outcomes to date include the ongoing development of research capacity in Traveller organisations, with TVG as an equal partner from the outset, and four further Traveller organisations also involved to extend the area of data collection beyond the city. TVG peer researchers will be involved in data interpretation, as well as choices on how to report and disseminate findings.
This Engaged Research initiative contributes to:
UNIC Theme: ‘Health and Wellbeing’
Cork City Local Economic and Community Plan: Goal for ‘A city built on partnership, inclusion, and equality.’
Sustainable Development Goal: 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’
UNIC European University of Cities in Post-Industrial Transition, UCC office
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