63 awards to support community-engaged research announced under New Foundations programme

Research Ireland has today announced 63 New Foundations awards, with a total investment of €754,352, to support community-engaged research across Ireland. 

The New Foundations programme supports researchers from all disciplines to undertake research, networking, dissemination and capacity-building activities in partnership with community, voluntary, cultural and public bodies.  

The programme is designed to support meaningful collaborations between academia and communities, and to generate knowledge that responds to real-world needs and societal challenges. 

Welcoming the announcement, Dr Diarmuid O’Brien, CEO of Research Ireland, said: 

“The New Foundations programme enables researchers to work in close partnership with communities and public bodies to address a range of complex societal challenges. These awards support early-stage collaborative research, generating knowledge and evidence to inform national policy and deliver meaningful impact for people and communities across Ireland and beyond. I would like to congratulate all the awardees, and I look forward to seeing where their projects lead.”

Fourteen of this year’s awards were co-funded by a range of Government departments and agencies across six thematic strands, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Irish Aid), Department of Children, Disability and Equality, Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht, the Policing and Community Safety Authority, the Heritage Council, and the Electoral Commission (An Coimisiún Toghcháin). 

Some examples of projects funded in 2025 include: 

• Understanding Rural Domestic Abuse: examining barriers to seeking help for victims and survivors in rural Ireland, to inform a robust framework for domestic abuse policy and practice (Maynooth University in partnership with Longford Women’s Link)
• Visualising Vaccines: an interdisciplinary project examining how visual imagery during the COVID-19 pandemic influenced vaccine confidence, to inform more effective public health messaging in future health crises (National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training and Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology)
• Rhythms of Relief: working in partnership with people living with arthritis to co-develop a pilot creative movement program to support pain management (University of Limerick in partnership with Arthritis Ireland)
• SHAREWEAVE: analysing how food-sharing initiatives support marginalised communities in Dublin by strengthening wellbeing and social connection, and developing tools to inform wider food and health policy (Trinity College Dublin in partnership with FoodCloud) 

The successful awardees* stem from 15 higher education institutions and research performing organisations across the country: 

Atlantic Technological University (2), Dublin City University (10), Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (2), Mary Immaculate College (2), Maynooth University (9), Munster Technological University (1), National College of Ireland (1), National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (1), RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences (3), Technological University Dublin (3), Technological University of the Shannon (1), Trinity College Dublin (8), University College Cork (9), University College Dublin (6), University of Galway (8), University of Limerick (9).  

* Total number of awardees is 75 (63 awards, 12 of which have Co-PIs)