Four Trinity researchers have been awarded Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Irish Research Council (IRC) UK Social Sciences Networking grants.
The grants were established to develop relationships between social science researchers in the UK and Ireland.
The awardees of the grants were Prof Joe Barry, adjunct professor of population health medicine, Dr Yekaterina Chzhen, assistant professor of sociology, Prof Fiona Newell, professor of experimental psychology and Fellow of Trinity and Prof Martine Smith, professor in clinical speech and language studies.
Barry’s research deals with alcohol and the secondary impacts of other people’s alcohol use. In a press statement Barry said: “There is a long history of collaboration with the UK public health and social science research communities.” “
Barry continued: “This award has come at exactly the right time to support Ireland’s efforts to implement the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 and consequently lessen the health and social burdens of alcohol in our country, made particularly manifest during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
Chzen researches differences in socioeconomic outcomes for children with relation to issues such as education and wellbeing. Chzen said in a press statement: “The new ESRC-IRC UK/Ireland networking grant will help me and my co-investigators to establish a new Interdisciplinary Child Well-Being Network to understand the full impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children in Ireland, the United Kingdom and further afield.”
In her work, Newell examines the brain and behavioural processes involved in the multisensory perception of our world. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, Newell said in a press statement that “the current Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the significance of our sense of touch to our general lives, as well as gaps in scientific knowledge on the function and role of the tactile sense.”
“For example, we have all become acutely aware of social touch and its role in wellbeing, as well as the requirement to minimise tactile contact with surfaces. Yet as scientists, our knowledge of tactile perception is relatively poor. To address this noticeable gap we are combining the specialisations in both countries to develop this research further.”
Smith’s research is concerned with promoting the communicative participation of children with speech, language and communications needs.
In a press statement, Smith said: “I am delighted to be awarded this funding. So many different people are engaged in work to support children with communication needs, it is really important for us all to link together in a structured way. This funding will enable us to develop new collaborations with all relevant stakeholders”, Smith added.
