Launch of the 2023/2024 UCD Community Engagement report

Conway Fellow, (opens in a new window)Prof. Amanda McCann and artist, Lorna Donlon spoke about 'Cut from the Same Cloth', a public engagement project led by UCD Conway Institute at the launch of the 2023/2024 UCD Community Engagement Report in UCD Quinn School of Business on Thursday, 15 May.

The report highlights and showcases the wide variety of community engagement happening across UCD, from community-engaged research and innovation and community-engaged teaching and learning, to volunteering.

'Cut from the Same Cloth' is an artist-led collaboration between 25 biomedical researchers from UCD Conway Institute and 164 women from minority communities across Ireland.

Through a series of ten gatherings in community settings around Ireland in 2024, women shared personal stories about fabrics significant to their cultural traditions, customs and lived experience.

These ‘get-togethers’ provided an opportunity for researchers to share the parallels between patterns in textiles and those seen at the cellular level in current research into areas such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, skin burn wounds, rare respiratory diseases and Alzheimer’s disease.

The CuriosiTY transition year work experience programme and the introductory training on public & patient involvement for 10 doctoral students on the EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions doctoral network called ColoMARK also featured in the report.