- Home
- About Us
- Research
- Research Clusters & Working Groups
- Ageing
- Children and Young People
- Research for Civil Society, Environment and Social Action (REACT)
- Genders, Sexualities and Families
- Disability and Mental Health
- SHAPE
- CARE21
- Migration and Integration
- Poverties, Social Justice and Inequalities
- Gender and the Academy Research Working Group
- Crime and Social Harm (CSH)
- Populism and the Rise of the Far-right
- Work, Organisations and Welfare
- News and Events
- People
- Events
- Join Us
SHAPE
Explore this page
About the SHAPE Cluster
The SHAPE (Society, Health and Political Economy) research cluster brings together researchers with interests in interdisciplinary approaches to issues relating to health, food and wellbeing from schools and departments across UCC, including Applied Social Studies, Spatial Planning and Urban Health, Economics, Public Health and Epidemiology, Applied Psychology, General Practice, Geography, Medicine, Occupational Sciences and Occupational Therapies.
Aims and Objectives:
- To support and promote critical, social scientific and inter-disciplinary health research within UCC.
- To critically assess public projects, programmes and policies for their health equity impact across society, with particular focus on traditionally marginalised groups.
- To combine research interests and collaborate in research projects, seminars, publications and funding calls.
- To bring together diverse research methodologies and expand Irish health research in innovative directions.
- To highlight the social, economic, philosophical and political dimensions of health practice and policy, and healthcare provision.
- To translate knowledge for Irish and European health policy and practice by conducting policy-relevant health research.
Cluster Events
The SHAPE cluster organises regular events at which members and invited speakers can present their research.
A Health Impact Assessment on the Cork City Development Plan (2022-2028) - Reflections on the Process, 6 May 2025
Co-hosted by the SHAPE cluster and the School of Public Health.
Marketisation of Care: Current and Emerging Approaches, 4 April 2025
Co-hosed by the SHAPE and CARE21 research clusters.
Leaving No One Behind: Health Inequalities on the Island of Ireland, 27 April, 2023
This full-day online symposium was co-hosted by the ISS21 SHAPE & REACT research clusters.
How was care represented in Ireland’s Oireachtas Special Committee on COVID-19 Response? 2 March 2022
In this seminar, Dr Felicity Daly (Post-doctoral Researcher on the CareVisions project) explored governmental discourses about care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cork Healthy Cities Action Plan, 21 April 2021
In this seminar Denise Cahill (Healthy Cities Co-coordinator in Cork City) described a range of initiatives that are underway to increase the number of green spaces and open up different spaces (including streets and the river) for recreation, play and exercise.
Subjective Beliefs and Economic Preferences During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 24 March 2021
In this seminar Professor Don Ross presented the findings of a major experimental research study carried out in the US and South Africa to explore people's beliefs and economic preferences during the pandemic.
Evidence Amalgamation Workshop, May 2019
On 10 May 2019 the SHAPE research cluster hosted a full-day workshop on evidence amalgamation, with Irish and international presenters including Louise Caffrey (Trinity College, Dublin); Hannah Jongsma (University College London); Ben Baumberg Geiger (University of Kent); and Jacob Stegenga (University of Cambridge).
Past, Present and Future of Patient Payment in the Irish Healthcare System, March 2019
This half-day workshop examined the role of different funding mechanisms for healthcare, with a view to informing policy-makers on a more equitable way forward. It provided multidisciplinary insights into the issue of paying for health in Ireland, drawing on a number of perspectives including economics, history, social policy and public health, while also drawing on international comparisons. Participants from Ireland, the UK and Spain presented eight papers on a range of topics including the history of universal health care; the costs of healthcare in contemporary Europe; paying for health in Ireland (historical and economic perspectives); and access to healthcare, private health insurance and inequity.
The cluster hosts internal seminar series at which cluster members present their work. A list of presentations from 2019 is available at: SHAPE Seminar Series
Research Projects
Projects linked to the themes of the SHAPE cluster include:
Imaging/Imagining Reproductive Crisis: time-lapse microscopy, animation and fertility discourse (2024-2027). Dr Rebecca Close (PI). DOROTHY COFUND Programme.
SocialPaths: Sex-specific socioeconomic pathways to cardiovascular disease risk across the life course (2022-2026). Dr Linda O'Keeffe (PI). Funder: Health Research Board.
HIA-IM: Development of a health impact assessment (HIA) implementation model: enhancing intersectoral approaches in tackling health inequalities (2023-2026). Dr Monica O'Mullane (PI). Funder: Health Research Board.
TRANSLATE-HIA: Translating knowledge on Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to strengthen Health in All Policies (2025-2026). Dr Monica O'Mullane (PI). Funder: Health Research Board.
TEENVOICET1D Developing a Public Patient Involvement (PPI) Panel of Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes (Jan-Sept. 2023)
CareVisions: Envisioning a Care-Centred Society Within and Beyond COVID19 (2020-2023)
TEENT1D: Teenagers Transitioning to the Self-Management of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D): Exploring Day-to-Day Experiences and Developing Social Supports (2021-2022)
ISL-HEALTH: Ensuring Access Provision to Public Health Services for the Irish Deaf Community (2021-2022)
PEACH: Physical, Emotional, Active, Cognitive, Health Project (2018-2020)
School Food Policy in Ireland: Opportunities and Challenges. Funded by the CACSSS Interdisciplinary Research Fund
Leaving No One Behind: Developing an All-Ireland Integrated Health and Social Care Service for All in a Post-Brexit Era. Funded by the CACSSS Interdisciplinary Research Fund
Cluster Membership
Click on the following link for a list of Cluster Members
If you would like to join the SHAPE Cluster, please contact the Cluster leader, Dr Monica O’Mullane (m.omullane@ucc.ie) or the ISS21 Research Co-ordinator (m.scanlon@ucc.ie).