The personal, societal and economic costs of low back pain are enormous, and the likelihood of being disabled by back pain has worsened in recent decades. Prof Helena Lenihan, Chair of the UL Research Impact Committee is joined by Dr Kieran O’Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, School of Allied Health and winner of the President’s Research Excellence and Impact Early Career Award. Dr O’Sullivan’s research has shed new light on why back pain is such an ongoing challenge and the tendency for back pain to be treated as an almost entirely ‘physical’ issue – where we rely too much on tests such as MRI scans, at the expense of treating the whole human. His research has led to the development and testing of novel solutions for the treatment of back pain.

University of Limerick

Back pain: Treating the human - not the scan

A 10 year partnership between UL and HSE has benefited patients dealing with multidrug-resistant infections, patients with cystic fibrosis and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Winner of the 2020 Outstanding Research Collaboration, President’s Research Excellence and Impact Award, the collaboration involves microbiologists, designers, engineers, nurses, physiotherapists, paediatricians, respiratory specialists. Understanding infectious disease outbreaks and the microbial causes of infection leads to new prevention and control interventions, education programmes and innovations in medical device and testing technologies. Prof Colum Dunne, School of Medicine, Prof Barry Linnane, Consultant Respiratory Paediatrician, UHL, Prof Nuala O’Connell, Consultant Clinical Microbiologist, UHL, Barbara Slevin, Assistant Director of Nursing, Infection Prevention & Control, ULHG, Kevin O’Sullivan, Rapid Innovation Unit and Prof Colum Dunne, School of Medicine UL join our host Prof of Economics, Helena Lenihan to discuss their award-winning collaboration. Supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Tackling multi-drug resistant infections through research collaboration

Zero hours work is work with no guaranteed hours. Researchers at the Kemmy Business School, have been examining the prevalence and impact of zero hours work and low hours work amongst Irish employees. Dr Lorraine Ryan, lecturer in Employment Relations & Human Resource Management in the Department of Work & Employment Studies at the KBS discusses the prevalence of these work contracts, their effect on employees and their social impact. She outlines how she and her colleagues carried out the first study in Ireland into zero hours contracts and how their findings influenced the shaping of the 2018 Protection of Employment Act.

Zero Hours and Low Hours Work in Ireland

Dr Ann Marcus-Quinn, a lecturer in Technical Communication and Instructional Design at the University of Limerick asks whether the move from book to tablet is the right one for the education system. She discusses how digital teaching and learning resources can be used, developed and shared in order to enhance teaching and learning in Irish education. She also talks about her involvement in a review of a secondary school’s digital policy and how this resulted in its decision to reintroduce books citing concerns over students screen time and recommending a blended approach to learning.

Technology in Education: Why content is key

Dr Michelle Norris shares how her project, ‘BREASTech’, is working to better understand how software and technology can impact the physical activity levels of breast cancer patients and survivors. She also discusses how her training as an ALECS Marie Curie COFUND fellow is helping her to share the impact of her research with a wider audience.This work was supported, in part, by Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre (www.lero.ie) and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754489.

Engineering Physical Activity in Breast Cancer

Dermot Hayes, disability community activist from Ennis in conversation with Dr Rosie Gowran, School of Allied Health, UL and Leigh Gath, disability rights campaigner on the importance and challenges of getting the right wheelchair nationally and globally and the difficulties that wheelchair users face when proper supports are not available.

Importance and challenges of getting the right wheelchair

Oisín Kavanagh is a pharmacist and PhD researcher with the Synthesis and Solid State Pharmaceutical Centre (SSPC), the SFI Pharmaceutical Research Centre, at the University of Limerick. He discusses how advances in the distribution and production of medicines might shape the pharmacy of the future and how these could help to alleviate the financial burden on the State while in turn easing the burden on patients, making drug delivery easier and more effective. He explores how 3D printing of personalised medicines in pharmacies may bring benefits but also raises the regulatory concerns that may ensue within an industry that is highly monitored and regulated.

Personalised medicine and the pharmacy of the future

The Research Soapbox event highlighted how research can make a real difference. The lunchtime showcase event took place in the Fab Lab in Limerick’s city centre and involved researchers from PhD to Professor with voices from the University of Limerick Thesis in 3 Competition as well as the Research Impact Podcast Series. The event was moderated by Prof Helena Lenihan, Chair of the UL Research Impact Committee. The range of topics varied from match fixing in sport to designer medicines and from folding turbine blades to the rights of wheelchair users and a lot more besides.

Research Soapbox

Psychology has traditionally focused on biological, genetic or personality factors to explain why some people cope better or worse than others in adverse situations. However such a focus can lead to a therapeutic dead end as it is very difficult to change a person’s temperament or genetic predispositions. In the first of a series of guest host podcasts, Psychology Masters student Ilyana Keohane introduces Prof Orla Muldoon as she discusses the research carried out at the Centre for Social Issues Research at UL where they address this problem by conducting highly regarded research on the benefits and burdens of so-called ‘collective identities’, such as nationality, socio-economic groups, and ethnicity.

Using psychology and the power of collective identities to combat adversity

In 1900, only 14% percent of the world’s population lived in a city. Today, for the first time in history, more than half the planet’s population reside in urban areas. These urban centres are now racing to become the smart cities of the future. Limerick has received a major boost in the race to become a smart city through its designation as Ireland’s first ‘Lighthouse Smart City’ through the Positive City Exchange Project. Rosie Webb, Senior Architect, Limerick City & County Council and Deputy co-ordinator of the Positive City Exchange Project and Professor Merritt Bucholz, founding Professor of Architecture at the University of Limerick, who is also an investigator on the project join us to tell us more about this project to shape Limerick’s future.

Creating a Positive Energy City Centre in Limerick

Ethnomusicologist, Irish traditional musician and lecturer at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Dr Aileen Dillane talks about her research project FestiVersities: European Music Festivals, Public Spaces, and Cultural Diversities. This research is supported through Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), European Commission.

Music Festivals, Inclusion and Public Spaces

Personalised medicine is the next great global challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. The vision of the pharmacy of the future is one which employs disruptive technologies to enable on-demand manufacture of drugs designed to individual needs. Central to this vision is the concept of continuous processing. The Bernal Chair in Pharmaceutical Powder Engineering, Prof Gavin Walker, discusses how continuous processing is a key enabler to impact on global health through delivering more tailored and targeted medicines.

Cracking the code for personalised medicine

Anne MacFarlane, Professor of Primary Healthcare Research at the Graduate Entry Medical School, University of Limerick and member of UL’s Health Research Institute talks about her research in the area of Public and Patient Involvement in Research, specifically participatory health research with socially excluded communities. Recorded by GK Media Ltd.

Why involve the public and patients in research?

Tax fraud and tax evasion affects us all. Within the European Union, huge sums of revenue for public investment are being lost due to tax evasion and avoidance with estimates in the region of 1 trillion euros. Prof Sheila Killian of the Kemmy Business School talks about her research as part of the EU funded project called COFFERS - Combatting Fiscal Fraud and Empowering Regulators. The team at the Kemmy Business School are focusing on the role of expert professional networks, tax advisers, wealth managers and the factors which can lead them to take ethical or aggressive approaches to their tax work.Recorded by GK Media Ltd.

A Europe-wide approach to combatting tax fraud and evasion

Lecture as part of Inaugural UL’s Research Week by Prof Karel Luyben, former Rector Magnificus of TU Delft and an expert on Open Science. During his lecture Prof Luyben poses questions such as; What concrete conditions should be met first, for your organisation to embrace Open Science? What do you hope that your organisation will gain from open science? What is the number one prerequisite for you personally with respect to Open Science implementation? What role are you willing to take for the implementation of open science? Either from your personal point of view, or your professional position. What is in your opinion be the main risk of Open Science for your organisation? What should be done to prevent it? What is the main contribution of your organisation to the implementation of Open Science?

Research Week - Open Science in The Netherlands

The UL Research Impact Podcast Channel features interviews and seminars exploring research that makes an impact beyond academia.