CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FROM UCC RESEARCH STUDENTS

PLEASE REGISTER HERE

Date of event: December 5, 2025; 9:00 am - 3:00 pm

Location of Event: Devere Hall, 1st Floor, UCC

Registrations: Free

Monetary prizes for students for best presentations and posters (Supported by Qualcomm Inc.)

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SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT HERE

Abstract submissions open on: October 15th, 2025

Submission deadline: November 14th, 2025*

* Later submissions can be accepted for posters only, until December 1st and outside of the prize competition

Prizes: Best presentation €1,000; Runner-up €500; Best poster €500

UCC Futures

UCC Futures is an ambitious new programme of research prioritisation coupled with an innovative academic recruitment strategy across ten indicative areas of strategic importance that will build a foundation for economic, societal and cultural resilience and prosperity.

Future Pharmaceuticals

New emerging treatments and therapies increase the complexity of component materials and processes. Future Pharmaceuticals is one of the 10 thematic areas of UCC Futures, advancing knowledge which underpins discovery, development and manufacturing, from small molecules to biopharmaceuticals. Transcending traditional discipline boundaries is critical to ensure effective and advanced collaboration, development and production of new medicines at scale that ensure availability, affordability, efficacy and safety through a patient-centric approach. UCC Futures - Future Pharmaceuticals leverages extensive infrastructure across our key Schools and Research Institutes.

The Research Showcase

We are calling all research students in UCC whose work has any type of potential impact in the Pharmaceutical / Biopharmaceutical environment to submit abstracts for a mini-conference. Some monetary prizes will be awarded for the best presentations and poster. This Showcase will provide a window to the current diversity of research that is taking place at UCC and that is both developing highly skilled new talent for the sector and progressing innovation.

World-leading external experts from academia and industry will be providing plenary lectures, complementing a top-level overall picture of R&D and innovation in one of the most critical sectors of the Irish economy, as served by UCC's research capabilities.

Programme

9:00 - 9:25 Registration (coffee offered)

9:25 - 9:30 Welcome by Future Pharmaceuticals Director (Prof. Anita Maguire)

9:30 - 10:00 Plenary guest speaker: Ireland’s Pharma Future: Innovation, Disruption, and Opportunity; Phillip Gammel, Astellas                                        

10:00 - 10:15 Student speaker 1

10:15 - 10:30 Student speaker 2

10:30 - 11:30 Poster session 1

11:30 - 12:00 Plenary guest speaker: Formulation Challenges and Enabling Approaches for Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs; Anne-Marie Healy, Trinity College Dublin

12:00 - 12:15 Student speaker 3

12:15 - 12:30 Student speaker 4

12:30 - 13:30 Poster session 2 (light catering offered)

13:30 - 13:45 Student speaker 5

13:45 - 14:00 Student speaker 6

14:00 - 14:15 Student speaker 7

14:15 - 14:30 Student speaker 8

14:30 - 14:45 Poster session 3

14:45 - 15:00 Awards and closing

Note: Student presentations will be selected by the Organising Committee from among all abstracts submitted by the deadline

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Event Host: School of Engineering and Architecture

Organising Committee

Abina Crean (Professor of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy)

Anita Maguire (Professor and Head of School of Chemistry, Future Pharmaceuticals Director)

Claudia Cashman (Senior Executive Assistant, PA to Head of School of Engineering & Architecture)

Gerard McGlacken (Professor and Vice-Dean for Research & Innovation of the College of SEFS)

Jorge Oliveira (Professor and Head of School of Engineering and Architecture; Chair Organising Committee)

Justin McCarthy (Professor and Head of School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology)

Melissa Hannah-Brown (Futures Pharmaceuticals Chair of Analytical Chemistry)

Plenary speakers:

Phillip Gammel

Phillip Gammel is a Pharmaceutical/Biopharma leader with extensive experience in a range of multidisciplinary leadership positions across Manufacturing, Engineering, Project Management, OpEx, Validation & Technology Transfer. Experience in both large molecule (vaccine manufacture) and small molecule (API, OSD & Aseptic fill-finish) manufacturing operations.

Currently Site Technology Lead with Astellas Pharma Inc., leading the development and introduction of innovative technologies and initiatives, aligned with Astellas’ strategic goals.

President of ISPE (International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering) Ireland Affiliate. ISPE is the largest body representing the Life Sciences industry globally and ISPE Ireland is one of the biggest Affiliates in ISPE, with more than 800 members. 

Anne-Marie Healy  

Anne Marie Healy is Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin. She has over thirty years research experience in pharmaceutical material science, preformulation and formulation of pharmaceuticals, with a particular interest in enhancing oral and pulmonary drug delivery. Since 2013, Anne Marie has served as a Co-Principal Investigator at the SSPC, the Research Ireland Centre for Pharmaceuticals, and she is currently Co-Director of the EPSRC-Research Ireland Centre for Doctoral Training in Transformative Pharmaceutical Technologies, jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK and Research Ireland. Professor Healy has published extensively, with over 140 international peer reviewed publications. She has graduated 26 PhD students and has mentored 29 postdoctoral researchers to date. Anne Marie sits on the editorial boards of Molecular Pharmaceutics and the Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery, and is an editor of the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.