Our aims

All-Island Research Excellence Network

University College Dublin (UCD), Ulster University (Ulster) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have joined forces to connect Research Managers and Administrators across the island of Ireland.

The initiative commenced in January 2021 to establish an All-Island Research Excellence Network (AIREN) of research support professionals across the island of Ireland and deliver benefits to the HEI and research sector and to those individuals working within the research management and administration space. The AIREN initiative is delivered with support from the partner institutions UCD, Ulster and QUB and will continue to build on the work of the AIREN Project that was funded through the InterTradeIreland (ITI) Synergy Programme from January 2021-March 2023.  Synergy is a cross-border cluster initiative set up by ITI, the cross-border trade and business development body. It aims to scale cross border collaboration among SMEs and other players such as universities, third sector organisations and government agencies using cluster and networking supports.

Through AIREN, research support professionals across the island of Ireland will be proactive and develop new ways to support existing/build new cross-border collaborations between universities and with industry in the post Brexit era and COVID-19 pandemic.  AIREN objectives include to:

  • Develop the AIREN Network & Expand Membership
  • Share Research Management Best Practice & Knowledge
  • Identify & Maximise Funding Opportunities to Support All-island Research

The AIREN project will have tangible outputs that contribute to industry and the economy. It will seed and develop strategic North-South partnerships and collaborations in order to:

  • Build on shared EU performance post-Brexit
  • Exploit existing and new North-South Programmes/Investments
  • Support research areas that would benefit from all-Island research on a geographical basis
  • Enhance Ireland’s all-island research eco-system through: knowledge exchange; developing specialised skills; interacting with other professional research management networks.

Share Research Management Best Practice & Knowledge

University College Dublin (UCD), Ulster University (Ulster) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have joined forces to connect Research Managers and Administrators across the island of Ireland.  The initiative commenced in January 2021 to establish an All-Island Research Excellence Network (AIREN) of research support professionals across the island of Ireland and deliver benefits to the HEI and research sector and to those individuals working within the research management and administration space.  AIREN has held many events for research managers and administrators in the three partner institutions and for the wider HEI and Research community across the island of Ireland to identify and share best practice areas in Research, Impact and Innovation/Enterprise with each other.  AIREN events to date have included the in-augural AIREN Conference on ‘Research for the Future’ held in Belfast in September 2022.  Learning from each other greatly enhances the professional service and support to the academic community, industry and other stakeholders for the benefit of cross-border collaboration.  To support the sharing of research management best practice and knowledge AIREN aims to:

  • Hold 3 AIREN events each year
  • Hold the next AIREN Conference in 2024 and the longer-term ambition is to hold  bi-annual AIREN Conference events
  • Build relationships with other networks of research support professionals such as EARMA, ARMA and CARDEA
  • Provide a ‘voice’ for AIREN Members to lobby and promote best practice within the research support profession.

Identify & Maximise Funding Opportunities to Support All-island Research

AIREN will raise university and industry awareness of research funding opportunities available to support cross-border and all-island collaboration and together maximise the all-island funding awarded through competitive funding programmes. AIREN aims to:

  • Identify and keep informed of funding programmes available to support all-island collaboration
  • Identify and keep informed of funding programmes available to support career development for research support professionals
  • Share knowledge and insights on such funding programmes
  • Facilitate introductions to seed new research collaborations and partnerships
  • Engage with the relevant funding bodies on same.

Develop the AIREN Network & Expand Membership

The AIREN initiative commenced in January 2021 to establish an All-Island Research Excellence Network (AIREN) of research support professionals across the island of Ireland and deliver benefits to the HEI and research sector and to those individuals working within the research management and administration space.

As the AIREN continues to develop and expand the network aims to:

  • Set up and maintain a new members platform to facilitate interaction between AIREN Members
  • Identify and where possible apply to external funding programmes for funding to support AIREN
  • Ensure and its’ activities are member centric
  • Provide a forum for engagement with outside parties – e.g. funding bodies and other networks
  • Provide a ‘voice’ for AIREN Members to improve and strengthen recognition of the research support profession

Further information on AIREN Membership can be found here.