New UCC research to address the most pressing challenges in health and social care

28 Sep 2026

Advancing supervision between senior and junior doctors in Irish hospitals, providing tools for better clinical trial designs, and enhancing patient care for young people in Irish mental health services are the three University College Cork (UCC) research projects announced today through the Health Research Board’s (HRB) Investigator-Led Projects (ILP) scheme.

The HRB-ILP scheme will support innovative and internationally competitive research across patient-oriented research (POR), population health research (PHR) and health services research (HSR). Nationally, the HRB is investing €12 million in 29 new investigator-led research projects - 18 POR projects, six PHR projects and five HSR projects.

Among the new research projects totalling €1,001,801 that will be funded at University College Cork are:

MAPS-Ireland: Mapping and Advancing Practices of Supervision Between Senior and Junior Doctors in Irish Hospitals
Funding Amount: €428,979

Dr Anél Wiese, Medical Education Unit, School of Medicine

On every shift in every hospital in Ireland, senior doctors supervise junior doctors while caring for patients. When that supervision works well it protects patients and helps junior doctors become competent, confident clinicians. But what good supervision actually looks like is often left unspoken, it varies a lot from one medical team to the next, and teams rarely get any practical support to look at it and improve it during ordinary working days.

MAPS-Ireland sets out to explain how supervision really works, both inside medical teams and across the wider health system. The research team will review the Irish and international evidence, run a national survey of hospital doctors to map how supervision differs between teams and specialties, and then work closely with ten medical teams through interviews and team discussions to understand how supervision plays out day to day. The end product is the Supervision Practice Guide, an openly available, user-tested resource that helps medical teams see, talk about and strengthen supervision in their own setting.

Dr Wiese said: "Rather than handing hospitals a set of rules from elsewhere, we will show which supervisory patterns work, in which settings, and why. For patients that should mean safer, more reliable care, and for doctors in training it should mean a working environment where learning is supported."

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PRECIS-3-C: Development and Validation of PRECIS-3-C: Extending the PRECIS-3 Tool for Cluster Randomised Trials
Funding amount: €244,701

Dr. Andrew Willis, HRB Clinical Research Facility & School of Public Health

Clinical trials help us find out whether new health treatments work. However, some trials are designed in ways that are very different from everyday healthcare, which can make it difficult to know whether their findings will apply in the real world. PRECIS-3 is a tool that helps researchers consider how closely a trial’s design reflects real world conditions. This project will extend PRECIS-3 for use with cluster randomised trials (where groups of people, such as GP practices, hospitals or schools, rather than individuals, are randomly allocated to different treatments or approaches). The overall aim is to help researchers design cluster trials that better reflect the settings and circumstances in which the results will ultimately be used.

"Clinical trials should give us evidence that is relevant to the real world, not just evidence that health treatments work under ideal conditions. By extending PRECIS-3 to cluster randomised trials, this project will promote better trial design that more closely reflects everyday healthcare. Ultimately, this will help us produce evidence that is more useful to patients, healthcare professionals and decision-makers leading to real improvements in the way healthcare is delivered," said Dr. Willis.

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i-STICK: Implementing and Sustaining Transition in Care Innovation through Implementation Science and Knowledge Translation in Irish Mental Health Services
Funding amount: €328,121

Dr. Rachel Flynn, School of Nursing & Midwifery

Ireland’s Enhanced Transition Plan aims to improve how young people move between services, but we still need to understand how well it works in practice, what helps it work, and how it can be maintained over time.

Led by Dr Rachel Flynn and co-led by Dr James O’Mahony, i-STiCK will work with young people, families and mental health professionals to understand how the Enhanced Transition Plan is being used in mental health services and what influences its success. The project will focus on young people with ADHD and eating disorders, in partnership with the Child and Youth Mental Health Office, Bodywhys and ADHD Ireland, alongside international experts in mental health and transitions in care.

Dr. O’Flynn said: "Moving to adult mental health services should not mean starting again. Every young person deserves a transition that is connected, coordinated and supportive. i-STiCK will help us understand what makes this possible—and how we can make those improvements last."

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Dr Gráinne Gorman, Chief Executive of the HRB, said: "The ILP scheme is a core element of the HRB funding portfolio. These projects embedded Public and Patient Involvement from the outset, helping to build public trust, enhance the relevance and feasibility of the research and ensuring researchers address questions that matter most to patients, families and communities."

Professor John F. Cryan, UCC Vice President for Research and Innovation, said: “These projects further demonstrate the depth and quality of health research taking place in UCC. The project outcomes will have a significant and long-lasting impact on the Irish healthcare system, patients, and their families.”