The Centre for Pain Research at NUI Galway is currently recruiting adolescents aged between 12–18 years with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA) in Ireland and their parents, to take part in an online self-management programme. The aim of this programme is to empower young people with JIA to self-manage their condition. Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis is a chronic condition where the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s tissues, causing inflammation in the joints and potentially other areas of the body. It is the most common childhood rheumatic disease. In Ireland, 1,100 children and adolescents live with JIA and, according to Arthritis Ireland, over 100 children are newly diagnosed annually. The disease course can be unpredictable and children often experience symptoms that restrict physical and social interactions and negatively impact health-related quality of life. The Paediatric Rheumatologist-to-patient ratio in Ireland is the second lowest in Europe, which makes accessing care particularly difficult. The NUI Galway project will test an Irish adaptation of a Canadian online programme for managing arthritis combined with a novel peer mentoring programme. This programme will help teenagers learn to make decisions about their health, and meet and be inspired by other young people living with arthritis. Topics covered within the programme include managing symptoms, coping strategies, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and planning for the future. Teenagers who have gone through the programmes in Canada showed improvements in their ability to take care of their own health, their understanding of arthritis, and they have less pain. Dr Hannah Durand, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Pain Research in NUI Galway, says: “While individually, both the self-management and peer mentoring programmes have been proven effective in improving JIA-related knowledge and self-management, they have never been combined nor have previous trials allowed individual tailoring, which is believed crucial to more effectively meet adolescents’ needs. This pilot trial will test the usability and the effectiveness of this combined programme for adolescents in Ireland. “Online programmes have the potential to increase access to evidence-based supports for teens living with JIA across the country. This pilot trial will provide us with critical information about what works for teens in Ireland specifically. The end product will be a culturally appropriate clinical tool developed in partnership with adolescents with JIA, their parents, health professionals and JIA organisations that will overcome current barriers to accessing self-management care and peer support.” For further information, please contact Dr Hannah Durand at painresearch@nuigalway.ie or phone at 091 495831. For more about the Centre for Pain Research, visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie/centre-for-pain-research/ -Ends-

University secures An Taisce’s prestigious international Green Flag accreditation NUI Galway was recently awarded the internationally recognised Green Flag by An Taisce’s Green-Campus programme on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education. The internationally recognised ‘Green Flag’ award was announced following a rigorous assessment process.    The Green-Campus Programme is an international environmental education and award scheme that promotes long-term, whole college action for the environment that empowers both students and staff to create a more balanced campus community and to reduce environmental impacts and associated costs. The Green Flag Award is the result of many years of hard work undertaken to promote best practice in sustainability across five themes which include energy, waste, travel, biodiversity and water.  Environmental, Health and Safety Manager at NUI Galway Lorraine Rushe said: “This award is hugely important to the University as it recognises the engagement by staff and students and the vast effort and hard work that is ongoing in the thematic areas. Each theme poses its own unique challenges but is essential to ensuring that our campus achieves environmental, social and economic sustainability, which will benefit us now and into the future. Attaining the ‘An Taisce Green Campus Flag’ will act as a visual sign of the Universities commitment to sustainability and its achievements to date.” Campus projects in the area of sustainability include: A 34% reduction in energy since 2006, a metric audited and validated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). This exceeds the SEAI national target of a 33% reduction by 2020, which has resulted in a refreshed target of 40% reduction by 2020. This has been achieved through a range of measures, including a combined heat and power plant, solar thermal and solar photovoltaic panels, air to water heat pumps, the introduction of biomass boilers and the implementation of LED high efficient lighting systems across campus. Subscribing to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan in 2018 and introducing a pollinator-friendly planting scheme throughout the campus. The introduction of composting stacks, bird boxes and insect hotels to the Biodiversity Trail and other locations across campus, in addition to the establishment of herb beds and two new fruit gardens, which are used by staff and students and in campus restaurants. Reducing the impact of transport through the University’s park and ride shuttle bus service on campus coupled with the cycle-to-work scheme and the installation of 14 electric car-charging points across campus. A curriculum focus on sustainability with 230 modules across all Colleges that contain an element on, or a focus on, sustainability. Ensuring all disposable cups across outlets on campus are biodegradable. NUI Galway set up a Community and University Sustainability Project in 2015 under the direction of the Registrar and Deputy President, which launched its Sustainability Strategy in 2017. The Green Campus Committee work very closely with the Community and University Sustainability Project (CUSP) team and their work involves spreading information to the wider University audience on issues varying from energy and greenhouse gas emissions to biodiversity, health and wellbeing, the built environment, research and learning and governance and leadership.  Registrar and Deputy President of NUI Galway and Chair of the Community and University Sustainability Project, Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, said: “NUI Galway recognises that we all have a role to play in building a sustainable society and universities have a particular responsibility to promote sustainability through education, knowledge exchange, research, corporate social responsibility and shaping future agendas. A sustainable campus is one which maintains a green and healthy environment, promotes the use of resources efficiently and instils in graduates and staff the importance of tackling environmental challenges.”  Professor Ó Dochartaigh concluded: “This achievement would not be possible without the commitment of the campus community. The buildings and estates team, academics, administrators and students and staff across the campus have all played an important role in achieving the Green Flag. NUI Galway will continue to promote sustainability beyond the Green Campus programme and incorporate it into all aspects of University life as this is of utmost importance to the implementation of our Sustainability Strategy”. Michael John O’Mahony, Director of the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, congratulated the NUI Galway Green-Campus Committee on their programme. “The commitment of the Green Campus committee and the wider campus community in NUI Galway is evident by the number, range and impact of activities being undertaken. Furthermore, the structures are in place to have sustainability at the core of how NUI Galway operates. The work in the areas of renewable energy and biodiversity are examples of best practice. The teamwork of staff, students and contractors in the Green Campus efforts are to be applauded. We are delighted to officially recognise the efforts of all at NUI Galway and we look forward to continuing to work with them.” -Ends-

Earth Observation and space innovation-driven entrepreneurs and enterprises in Ireland encouraged to participate in Hackathon led by ICHEC founded at NUI Galway The Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC), has announced Ireland’s first Copernicus Hackathon, aimed at promoting the Earth Observation (EO) services sector across the country. The event takes place throughout the IT building at NUI Galway from 10-12 May 2019. The themes for the Hackathon contest represent areas where there is already significant expertise in Ireland, or significant need. These include digital agriculture, marine environment and security, unmanned aerial vehicles, energy and power, air quality and sustainable/ rural/socially responsible development. Hackathon participants will be challenged to come up with solutions for real-world problems using Copernicus satellite data (Copernicus is the European Earth Observation programme), and will compete for a range of awards, including cash prizes. The winners will be offered a place in the Copernicus Accelerator which offers a customised business development scheme for 50 visionary start-ups and entrepreneurs from Copernicus Participating Countries, the EU, Norway and Iceland, every year. A 30-day residency to develop solutions in the European Space Agency’s innovation-focused Phi Lab in Frascati, Italy is another of the prizes on offer. According to Dr Jenny Hanafin, Senior Earth Observation Scientist at ICHEC, founded at NUI Galway: “The space and Earth Observation ecosystem in Ireland has been developing rapidly in recent years and the first National Space Strategy is about to be published, acknowledging that this field has grown significantly. The strategy also establishes the means to support it with further growth. In Ireland there is a small but growing Earth Observation services sector. “ICHEC has recently launched its *SPÉir platform which aims to make satellite data easily accessible for Irish users, and promotes the use and application of Earth Observation and Copernicus data on a national basis. It’s clear that Ireland has a high level of the skills required to further develop this sector and our aim is that the proposed Hackathon event will help to achieve this.” Dr John Breslin, a Principal Investigator at the Confirm SFI Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing and Senior Lecturer at NUI Galway, says: “Hackathon is an ideal confluence point to bring together those with complementary skills – IT developers and designers, entrepreneurs and domain experts - to create exciting new applications based on Copernicus Earth Observation data and services. Ultimately, post event, we want to see more EO and space innovation-driven enterprises in Ireland, both hardware and software, with application areas ranging from smart manufacturing of new EO/space devices to systems tackling climate change or natural disasters.” According to Breslin, throughout the Hackathon the teams will get the opportunity to test out their initial innovative ideas on others, refine those innovations through a prototype, put a plan in place to take those ideas into a viable commercial proposition, and pitch the entire package to judges. Dr Breslin, added: “It’s important that people who are interested in different aspects of Earth Observation and space entrepreneurship attend the event, including those who like to hack or make things, like developers and designers, those who like to hustle and drive business, sales and growth, and those who bring the much-needed topic-specific expertise and know-how in Earth Observation and space. Remember that a technology innovation is nothing without a customer who wants to pay for it, so it must be a needs-led innovation.” The overall aims of the Hackathon are to raise awareness of commercial opportunities and to generate potential start-up, spawn-out or spinout ideas, and where possible provide support pathways to pre-commercial level for successful participants. A more general aim is to highlight the relevance of Copernicus data beyond the Space and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sectors, through the publicity generated by the event. Dr Hanafin, added: “To achieve these aims, we have invited a number of organisations to join us as partners for the event. These partners will allow us to leverage a range of skills that will be important in organising a successful, exciting event, promoting it to the relevant people, and supporting successful participants to take their hackathon ideas to the next level. “We are aiming for 50-60 participants to take part, with skills in Earth Observation, Geographic Information Systems, thematic areas like agriculture, marine, drones, data analysis, data visualisation, app development, web service development, graphic design, programming, project management, entrepreneurship and business development. We encourage anyone with any of these skills to register and take part, as it will be an exciting and fulfilling event.” Alongside ICHEC the event partners include TechInnovate at NUI Galway, Baily Labs, UCC Dept. of Geography, the National Centre for Geocomputation at MU, The National Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy (MaREI), the OPW, Teagasc, ESA Phi-Lab, ESA Space Solutions Centre Ireland, Icon Group, GEO University, Údarás na Gaeltachta and The National Digital Research Centre (NDRC). Register at http://tinyurl.com/cophackie and for further information email cophackie@ichec.ie, check out the Copernicus Hackathon Ireland Facebook event page or follow on twitter @CopHackIE. -Ends-