Research

The Geary Institute for Public Policy is a center of excellence for policy-relevant, theoretically informed, empirical research in the social and behavioural sciences. It was founded in 1999 and named in honour of Roy Geary, a UCD graduate whose research on economics, demography, and national accounting remains central to study in these fields to this day. The Geary Institute brings together researchers from across the social and behavioural sciences to enable cross disciplinary collaboration and to stimulate discussion on theories, methodologies and empirical results. We support research project applications and implementation and also maximise research impact on the academic literature and on public policy.

The Geary Institute currently has over 80 active fellows and supports 40 researchers and 30 doctoral students. Between 2015 and 2020 Geary Institute fellows published over 1700 research papers and secured over €27 million in research income from both national and international funding agencies. The Institute has extensive experience of securing EU funded research, particularly Marie Curie Actions and also currently hosts projects funded by the Irish Research Council, European Research Council, EU Horizon 2020, EU Horizon Europe and Norface and by government and philanthropic sources.

The Institute has a strong record of collaboration with policy makers and maximizing the policy impact of its research. It achieves this by participating in government expert groups, running conferences, training and via its online research dissemination platform - Publicpolicy.ie,.  This platform disseminates research in a clear and accessible way to policy makers, public and social service providers and interested citizens inform economic, social and environmental policies.