2022
UCC academics appointed to expert groups
UCC experts have been recently appointed to expert national groups.
Professor Mary Horgan, President of the Royal College of Physicians Ireland, along with UCC colleagues Dr Anne Moore, Senior Lecturer in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, UCC and Professor of Physical Chemistry, John Wenger, joint founder of the Centre for Research into Atmospheric Chemistry, have all been appointed as leading members of the Government's new Covid-19 Advisory Group, which will replace the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet).
In addition Dr. Aodh Quinlivan and Dr. Clodagh Harris of UCC’s Department of Government and Politics have been appointed to the Expert Advisory Groups of Ireland’s newest Citizens’ Assemblies.
Dr. Quinlivan, Director of the BSc Government degree programme and the MSc Government programme, will be supporting the Dublin Assembly. This was established to explore the appropriate kind of directly elected mayor and local government institutions for Dublin, and to provide recommendations in that regard. He is one of four members of the Expert Advisory Group, whose responsibility it is to guide the process and support assembly members in their discussions.
He stated that ‘It is a tremendous honour to be asked to serve on this group, but it is also daunting as we have a huge volume of work to get through. Not only will we be considering the strengths and weaknesses of the current model of local government in Dublin but also the challenges of a directly elected mayor, the costings of various proposals, and the functions which might be transferred from central government”.
As well as that, Dr. Clodagh Harris, a senior lecturer in the Department of Government and Politics, will provide professional guidance to the Biodiversity Loss Assembly. Dr. Harris's areas of expertise include deliberative and participatory democracy, democratic innovations, citizen and community involvement, democratic governance, and climate change.
The assembly to which she was recently appointed will study the dangers to biodiversity loss and how to reverse it, as well as the key causes and implications of biodiversity loss, as well as how to strengthen the government's response and monitor success.