• Chief Scientist at the National Suicide Research Foundation and World Health Organization Expert Advisor appointed to new UCC position.

• Demand for public mental health and suicide prevention has been greater than ever due to Covid-19 pandemic, expert says.

University College Cork (UCC) has announced the appointment of Ireland’s first Professor of Public Mental Health, with Ella Arensman taking up the role with immediate effect.

Prof Arensman, who will continue in her current role as Chief Scientist at the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF), will lead important and groundbreaking research on suicide and self-harm within UCC’s School of Public Health.

A project to unlock and showcase Ireland’s fossil heritage, a community led climate action project and research into the microbiome of Irish Travellers are among the seven UCC research projects awarded funding today through the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Discover Programme. 

UCC and MTU announce holistic education for enterprise, with Industry leaders such as Boston Scientific, Janssen, Pfizer, Sanmina, Stryker, Laya Health, DPS, Vodafone, SOSV.

The College of Medicine and Health, UCC, today announced the launch of The iEd Hub, which represents a consortium featuring Cork’s leading universities University College Cork (UCC) and Munster Technological University (MTU), enterprise stakeholders, and leading industries in the Health & Life Sciences sector.

Funded by €8.7 million awarded under the Government’s Human Capital Initiative Programme (HCI), the novel iEd partnership aims to deliver an innovative approach to education for enterprise. The curriculum content and mode of delivery will be designed and developed in conjunction with these industry partners, and will meet current and projected priority skills needs across Ireland’s economy. 

UCC has been named as one of the world’s top universities for the study of 20 subjects, according to the latest edition of the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject. We are also delighted to reveal that UCC has ranked in the top 50 universities for one discipline and top 100 for two further disciplines.

University College Cork is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Sarah Culloty as Head of the College of Science, Engineering and Food Science, following a competitive search process.

Prof. Culloty has had a distinguished career to date which has seen her head up UCC’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) and serve as a Director of the Environmental Research Institute.

A native of Firies, Co. Kerry, Prof. Culloty now leads a team of 600 academic and research staff, and over 5,000 students. The College generates 1,200 STEM-enabled graduates annually, and plays a significant role in the advancement of STEM - both in Ireland and around the world.

A University College Cork-led research project has received €3.5m in EU funding to develop a revolutionary way of converting waste heat into electricity.

One of only 58 projects to be funded under the EU’s latest Horizon 2020 EIC Pathfinder Open pilot programme (formally FET-Open), the ambitious project will draw on the expertise of scientists from Ireland, Germany, Latvia, and Spain.

The lack of clean water and sanitation affects millions globally. Now, funding has been approved for researchers at UCC to help improve the lives of people across the world.

• Increased employer demand expected for graduates with knowledge of sustainable business practices.
• Funding will also support a number of PhD scholarships over five years.
• AIB’s sustainable green lending book has proved its most resilient during the pandemic.

AIB has announced a partnership with University College Cork (UCC) which will see the bank fund The AIB Chair of Sustainable Business, the first of its kind in Ireland.

AIB has pledged €1.25 million over five years to support the objectives of The AIB Chair of Sustainable Business, which will be based in the Cork University Business School (CUBS), Ireland’s largest business school.

The funding will also support The AIB Sustainable Business Scholars programme which will be established for early career researchers who excel in their field.

UCC palaeontologists have discovered new evidence that the fate of vertebrate animals over the last 400 million years has been shaped by microscopic melanin pigments.

This new twist in the story of animal evolution is based on cutting-edge analyses of melanin granules – melanosomes – in many different fossil and modern vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Melanin and melanosomes have traditionally been linked to outermost body tissues such as skin, hair and feathers, with important roles in UV protection and stiffening of tissues. Analyses of where different animals store melanin in the body, however, show that different vertebrate groups concentrate melanin in different organs, revealing shifts in how animals have used melanin over the last 400 million years.

In the autumn of 1845, a young and charismatic African-American abolitionist sailed from America to Ireland for a four-month lecture tour of the island. Frederick Douglass had been born into slavery but escaped bondage on a plantation in Maryland by fleeing to the North, where he became a prominent anti-slavery activist. Douglass lectured to large and enthusiastic audiences in Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Belfast, met with Daniel O’Connell, and reflected upon the devastating effects of the famine then beginning to sweep the nation.

To commemorate this historic visit, UCC academics, in collaboration with students, artists, writers and community groups around Ireland, have launched #DouglassWeek with the support of the Frederick Douglass Family.