About Us
The UCD School of Veterinary Medicine's Strategic Plan (2019-2024) focuses onOne Health and One Welfare. Animal welfare science and ethics are key to the School's educational programmes and research. We have a particular interest in the core One Welfare principle of the interlinking between animal and human welfare and specifically in developing animal welfare assessment methodologies, the intersection of animal welfare with other areas of societal ethical concern including environmental issues, and the application of policy to drive welfare improvements.
In 2021 the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine became a partner in the Third EU Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (EURCAW) – Ruminants & Equines, which was designated by the European Commission in May 2021. The remit of the EURCAW is to support the Competent Authorities in EU member states with the implementation of current regulations on animal welfare. The Centre provides scientific and technical expertise on the development and application of animal welfare indicators and methods of assessment of animal welfare to competent authorities and policy workers in animal welfare. EURCAW Ruminants & Equines covers a range of farm animal species including those used for dairy production (cows, goats, sheep, buffaloes), the production of meat by cattle, sheep, goats, deer and horses, and ruminants and equines kept for other purposes. The activities of the EURCAW Ruminants & Equines are set out in a work programme in consultation with the European Commission.
The EURCAW Ruminants & Equines is a partnership of six organisations, coordinated by Professor Harry Blokhuis, Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences (SLU). Partners are Dr Birgitta Staaf Larsson (Swedish Centre for Animal Welfare, SLU), Professor Christoph Winckler (BOKU, Austria), Dr Isabelle Veissier (INRAE, France), Dr Evangelia Sossidou (ELGO-DIMITRA, Veterinary Research Institute, Greece), Dr Silvia D’Albenzio (IZSAM, Italy) and Professor Alison Hanlon (UCD, Ireland). Scientific and technical experts from each partner country will further support the activities of EURCAW Ruminants & Equines.
Research on animal welfare and veterinary ethics at the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine is conducted by (opens in a new window)Professor Siobhan Mullan, (opens in a new window)Professor Alison Hanlon and (opens in a new window)Associate Professor Vivienne Duggan. Graduate research opportunities are dependent on the award of competitive national or international funding and when available are advertised through professional networks and on social media such as Twitter (opens in a new window)@AlisonHanlon and (opens in a new window)@ucdvetmed
For more information, contact Professor Siobhan Mullan (opens in a new window)siobhan.mullan@ucd.ie; Professor Alison Hanlon: (opens in a new window)Alison.hanlon@ucd.ie and Assoc Professor Vivienne Duggan: (opens in a new window)vivienne.duggan@ucd.ie