NUI Galway has joined a multidisciplinary team of experts across Ireland and the UK to devise new ways of supporting families to have smoke-free homes. Physicist Dr Miriam Byrne will work with researchers in seven universities to inform the development of future interventions and support mechanisms to help reduce smoking in the home, given the health risks particularly to pregnant women, babies and children. Dr Byrne said: “Secondhand smoke has long been known as a danger to health, particularly for young children and pregnant mothers. Despite knowing the risks, and that it is a more serious issue in poorer areas, there is no recommended approach to tackling this issue and to encourage families to have a smoke-free home. “It may also be the case that restrictions introduced to limit the spread of Covid-19 have exacerbated the problem due to the amount of time families have been housebound, particularly in the colder and wetter months.” The Smoke-free Homes Innovation Network’s (SHINE), led by University of Stirling, Scotland and University College Dublin, brings together a multidisciplinary team – including tobacco and social science expertise – with the aim of broadening knowledge and understanding as to why smokers in the UK and Ireland continue to smoke in the home and what can be done to support them to create a smoke-free home. The network will explore smoke reduction strategies within homes, including initiatives to encourage smoking at the back door, with the window open, or with the cooker extraction fan on. Dr Byrne said: “The network and the high-level expertise of those involved will be crucial in helping to develop thinking on the issue and accelerate initiatives on policy, research and practice.” The SHINE network noted that previous research shows second-hand smoke exposure varies significantly with socio-economic circumstances. In Scotland, 15% of children living in poorer areas are exposed, compared to 1% of those living in wealthier areas. Researchers will take account of these wider challenges to understand the best interventions and support mechanisms for smokers, and any barriers to smoke-free homes, particularly for people living in less wealthy areas. They will address why, when and where people in Ireland and the UK continue to smoke within the home, what prevents them from creating a smoke-free home and what can be done to support them in making changes. The network is funded by the Irish Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council in the UK. Ends

NUI Galway has announced the appointment of Professor Jim Livesey as Vice-President for Research and Innovation. Professor Livesey joins from the University of Dundee, where he served as Dean of Humanities since 2014. Hailing from Cork City, Professor Livesey holds two degrees and a Masters in History from UCC, and a PhD in Modern History from Harvard University. Since then he has had a varied career, with posts at Harvard, Trinity, and Sussex as well as research and visiting appointments in France, the US, and China. He will bring his global experience, and his background in research leadership, to bear on the strategic development of NUI Galway. Professor Livesey is a global historian, whose research focus centres on the transformative effect of new kinds of knowledge for collective action. His work has examined the process of democratisation, the creation of the concept of civil society, and most recently, looked at science, technology and finance in provincial Europe. He refers to himself as an applied eighteenth-century historian, and his research has opened doors for partnership-based work in the Creative Economy, particularly as Co-Director of Dundee’s InGAME: Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise. The £11.5 million creative research and development centre is based on the experience and expertise surrounding the Scottish city’s games cluster. Professor Livesey will now lead NUI Galway’s research and innovation mission, building on the university’s significant successes in recent years. He takes on the new role just as the EU’s Horizon Europe funding programme for research and innovation launches, where the university will look to build on its success in the Horizon 2020 programme. Professor Livesey commented: ”I am delighted to take on this responsibility at NUI Galway. I’ve admired the creativity and quality of the research here for many years. The values of respect, openness, sustainability and excellence that animate the university are solid foundations on which to build research of global significance, with national and regional impact. I look forward to working with the research teams in the university as well as regional, national, and international partners as we identify where Galway can make the greatest contribution to research across the domains.” NUI Galway has over 2,500 staff and students engaged in research across multiple disciplines, and an international reputation for being research-driven. The university has significantly developed the innovation and entrepreneurship landscape, including business incubation and spin-out activity. President of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, said: "We warmly welcome Professor Jim Livesey to NUI Galway and look forward to working with him in our collective contribution to our university community and for the public good as we embark on the next chapter of our research journey as a university. "Professor Livesey brings immense experience in research management, grant capture, and stakeholder engagement to his new post. He has extensive experience of international research collaboration and of researcher development. He will offer a strong voice representing the research community in the university’s senior management as well as among policy makers nationally and internationally. Given his track record of high quality research and publication, he will promote excellence in research and innovation, respect for the evidence, openness to developing and disseminating new ideas and sustaining our research culture and institutions, true to the university’s values.” Prior to joining the University of Dundee as Professor of History in 2013, Professor Livesey undertook academic roles in the University of Sussex, Harvard University and Trinity College Dublin in the fields of  Global History, French History, Atlantic History, Intellectual History, Creative Economies Research.  To hear more about Research and Innovation at NUI Galway visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/ -Ends-

NUI Galway has joined forces with a new European network to accelerate clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines. The EU VACCELERATE project connects all stakeholders involved in vaccine development on the continent in order to speed up the next two phases of vaccine trials for Covid-19. Some 21 countries are involved as part of pandemic preparedness on a pan-European scale, creating the backbone of a new structure to coordinate the fast and effective testing of vaccine candidates. NUI Galway lead, Professor Declan Devane, Deputy Dean of the University’s College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, said: “We are delighted to play our role in enhancing Ireland’s capacity to conduct vaccine clinical trials for coronavirus and beyond. “Our role in VACCELERATE focuses on two particular areas - a living mapping and living systematic review of global Covid-19 vaccine trials of which there are currently 164, including 104 which are recruiting participants, and secondly an exploration of the barriers and facilitators to vaccination uptake in adults internationally.” The VACCELERATE project is led by the University Hospital Cologne, Germany and involves 26 partners from 16 EU-member states and 5 EU-associated countries, with other countries encouraged to join. NUI Galway and UCD are the Irish partners in the network, with funding provided under EU Horizon 2020. VACCELERATE will coordinate phase 2 & 3 Covid-19 vaccine trials in all EU-member states and EU-associated countries under one strategic-scientific umbrella. The network will link capable clinical trial sites, expert knowledge and promote transparent exchange of expertise in the vaccine development field. An important step in building this network is identifying clinical trial sites, 200 of which have already been identified, and laboratories with the capacity to perform vaccine clinical trials. VACCELERATE will also facilitate access to vaccine trial volunteers by setting up volunteer registries at https://www.vaccelerate.eu/volunteer-registry/index.html The project will promote harmonised acquisition, open exchange and consolidation of data for enhanced analysis across trials. This cooperation will generate solutions for characteristic problems in vaccine development that emerge in a pandemic and find answers to identified pressing public health questions. The European Commission is aiming to use VACCELERATE for the long-term increase of vaccine development capacities. Ends