Trinity Development Research Week

Trinity Development

Research Week

Monday 7th – Friday11th November 2011

www.tcd.ie/tidi

Development Research Week Development Research Week is supported by: is supported by:

http://www.tcd.ie/tidi/development-research-week/2011.php

Session Format• 15.00-15.05: Introduction by TIDI Chair, David Taylor• 15.05-15.15: TCD’s strategy for global engagement, Jane Ohlmeyer• 15.15-15.25: TIDI: Opportunities for Engagement, David Taylor• 15.25-15.40: Development research by faculty: Gus Bell, FEMS, Sarah Glavey,

FAHSS, Helen Sheridan and Martina Hennessy, FHS• 15.40-15.55: ‘EquitAble and the Equiframe Manual’ Joanne McVeigh, Centre for

Global Health• 15.55-16.10: ‘The Micro-Foundations of Development: An Exploaration of Access

to Resources and the Livlihoods of the Rural Poor in Vietnam’ Carol Newman, Dept. Economics/IIIS

• 16.10-16.25: ‘Sustainable Groundwater Development’ Bruce Misstear, School of Engineering

• 16.25-16.40: ‘Developing Cardiac Rehabilitation in Vietnam’ Juliette Hussey, Dept. Physiotherapy

• 16.40-17.00: Discussion/Q&A• 17.00: Trinity Development Research Week Launch Reception

How can a university change the world? The importance of research in addressing international development challenges

David Taylor, Professor of Geography, School of Natural Sciences

Chair, TIDI

http://www.tcd.ie/tidi/

Development interests in TCD

• 100+ staff members (majority researchers) with an active interest in development

• 55+ research projects• 40 courses with development content at undergraduate and postgraduate

levels• Development research strengths across three faculties, including Global

Health, Climate Change, Globalisation, are a key component of TCD’s research and outreach ambitions, as per the Strategic Plan 2009-2013

World scaled according to public health spending, 2001

http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

World scaled according to number of infant deaths, 2001

http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

World scaled according to contribution to ecological damage, 2003

http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

Spending on tertiary education 10 years to 2001

Why would a university want to get involved in development-related research, and why would someone want to fund a university to carry out development-related research?

Necessity? Isn’t development, especially when applied to Less Developed Countries, essentially a good thing, therefore we should just get on and do it?

Efficiency? Wouldn’t scarce funds be better spent on development programmes and projects that target poverty alleviation directly, rather than research?

Clarity? Don’t academics just muddy the waters with their theories and findings?

Impact? Don’t development-related journals generally have low impact factor scores?

Motivation for research on international development?

Research is important in identifying, for example

The form(s) of development desired, & their delivery

Appropriate technologies – including new treatments - and their effective implementation

The most appropriate techniques for acquiring information upon which to make decisions

The impacts of past development interventions and support

Research is also important for examining more specific questions about, for example:

livelihoods and governance

health and the emergence of new challenges to health

changing environmental and economic conditions and their implications

Field-based (participatory) development research is a two-way process that is potentially rewarding to all parties – and is an important tool in identifying problems (research questions) , and possible solutions

TCD MSc Environment and Development students, Rwanda, 2010

Will we be remembered as the generation who cared more for our banks, than for the world’s poor?

UK Overseas Development Assistance (2010) = £8.5 Billion (0.57% GDP)

UK bank bailout = £ 850 Billion (UK NAO, December 2009)

http://www.tcd.ie/tidi/

Thank you

Lake Burera, Rwanda

Faculty of Engineering, Mathematics and Science

(FEMS)

Overview of Research related to International Development

Natural sciences of developing countries

• Infectious diseases of poverty– Biology of pathogens causing

malaria, African sleeping sickness

– Epidemiology of parasitic worm diseases

– Genetic susceptibility to poverty-related diseases, e.g. TB

– Vector-borne diseases and climate change

• Tropical ecology– Plant and animal

Human sciences of developing countries

• Geography of Africa– Livelihoods and vulnerabilities

– Conflict

– IT and small business development

– Economic restructuring

– Waste management

Scientific/technological solutions for developing country problems

• Clean water– Water harvesting

– Solar disinfection

– Attenuation of pollutants

– Sustainable use of wetlands for agriculture

• Appropriate ICT– Mobile communications in health &

education

– Virtual environments in education

• Interventions for diseases– Antimalarial drug design

Schools and PeopleBiochemistry & Immunology

David Lloyd

Derek Nolan

Paul Voorheis

Computer Science & StatisticsJane Grimson

Tim Savage

EngineeringLaurence Gill

Paul Johnston

Bruce Misstear

Genetics & MicrobiologyGus Bell

Dan Bradley

Natural SciencesJoseph Assan

Padraig Carmody

Anna Davies

Celia Holland

Mike Jones

John Parnell

Clionadh Raleigh

David Taylor

Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

• Schools involved: Business, Education, Law, Psychology, Social Sciences and Philosophy, Social Work and Social Policy, ISE

• Institute for International Integration Studies– Irish Aid/HEA grant ‘Doctoral Training for

Development in Africa’ – Policy Coherence for Development, Advisory

Board for Irish Aid (ABIA)– Centre for Post-Conflict Justice

Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences

Faculty of Health Sciences• Schools involved: Dental Science, Medicine,

Nursing and Midwifery, Pharmacy• The School of Medicine has agreed on four

grand challenges which will contribute to the college’s overall policy of ‘sustainable society’. The third grand challenge relates to global health – To generate new approaches through research in basic science and in health systems for the management of poverty related disease at a global level.

School of Medicine Grand Challenges

1. To develop new strategies for the diagnosis and management of patients with brain disease

2. To develop new ways to prevent and treat obesity and its’ manifestations including in particular the inflammation-cancer sequence

3. To generate new approaches through research in basic science and in health systems for the management of poverty related disease at a global level

4. To create a new generation of tuneable anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant agents.

SCHOOL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES

• INTEGRATION OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE INTO CONVENTIONAL HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

• ETHNOBOTANICAL STUDY OF MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY THE WEST POKOT PEOPLE IN KENYA

• IN ADDITION WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPLORING PLACEMENT OPTIONS FOR CLINICAL PHARMACY STUDENTS

Faculty of Health Sciences• Centre for Global Health

– Medicine, Psychology, Nursing, Natural Sciences

• Research– APODD (African Policy on Disability and Development)

– Irish Aid/HRB– Evidence Aid – Cochrane Collaboration– Equitable - Enabling universal and equitable access to

healthcare for vulnerable people in resource poor settings in Africa.

– STEM – Support, train and empower managers – Irish Aid/European Commission

Faculty of Health Sciences

• Teaching – Indigo – PhD in Global Health– MSc Global Health– Global Health module for third year medical

students